Prof Michael Mason

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Environment and Sustainable Development with Economics. This course is available on the BA in Geography, BSc in Accounting and Finance, BSc in Economic History and Geography, BSc in Environment and Development, BSc in Environment and Sustainable Development, BSc in Environmental Policy with Economics and BSc in Geography with Economics. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

This course examines the issues, actors and processes that shape environmental governance at the transnational and global scales. Introductory lectures on the global environmental policy process introduce different scholarly perspectives informing recent and current research: these approaches are referred to as subsequent lectures address particular actor groups, processes and issues. Students are encouraged to think critically about the ways in which the regulation of global environmental risk is framed and politically negotiated.

In the Department of Geography and Environment, teaching will be delivered through a combination of classes/seminars, pre-recorded lectures, live lectures and other supplementary interactive live activities

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures across Winter Term. 

Students on this course will have a reading week in Winter Term Week 6.

Students will be expected to produce a formative essay (1500 words) in the Winter Term.

• Betsill, M.M., Hochstetler, K. and Stevis, D. (eds.) (2014) Advances in International Environmental Politics, second edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Biermann, F. (2014) Earth System Governance: World Politics in the Anthropocene, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Daoudy, M. (2020) The Origins of the Syrian Conflict: Climate Change and Human Security, Cambridge: Cambridge Universitt Press.
• Fuentes-George, K. (2016) Between Preservation and Exploitation: Transnational Advocacy Networks and Conservation in Developing Countries, Cambridge, MIT: MIT Press.
• Gupta, A. and Mason, M. (2014) Transparency in Global Environmental Governance: Critical Perspectives, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• O'Neill, K. (2017) The Environment and International Relations, second edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Park, S. and T. Kramarz (2019) Global Environmental Governance and the Accountability Trap, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the spring exam period.