Climate Adaptation and Human Rights – 5 credits

The course introduces climate adaptation from an interdisciplinary perspective and requires no prior legal or technical knowledge. Drawing on international human rights norms, the course explores how climate change both reflects and reinforces existing inequalities in society. Particular attention is given to how factors such as gender, age, disability, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity shape people’s vulnerability to and capacity to cope with climate-related risks.

Global warming is leading to increasingly frequent and intense natural disasters. These events can in turn result in displacement, loss of housing and livelihoods, and threats to fundamental rights such as the rights to life, health, water, and adequate housing. Climate adaptation therefore concerns not only limiting the direct impacts of climate change, but also designing measures that are fair, inclusive, and sustainable over time.

During the course, you will become familiar with the FIRE Framework, a rights-based framework for climate adaptation and climate action developed through long-term collaboration among relevant actors in multiple countries. The FIRE Framework focuses on how legislation, policy, and governance can be designed to protect people in a time of climate crisis. Topics covered include states’ obligations, access to information, public participation in decision-making processes, and access to justice and remedies when harm occurs. Through concrete examples and case studies from different parts of the world, you will learn how these principles can be applied in practice at both national and local levels.

Upon completion of the course, you will have a deeper understanding of the links between climate adaptation, human rights, and equality. You will be able to analyse climate risks from a rights-based and justice-oriented perspective, identify groups that are most at risk, and reflect on how climate adaptation measures can be designed to strengthen both social and environmental sustainability. The course provides you with tools to critically assess existing strategies and contribute to more inclusive and equitable responses to the challenges posed by climate change.

Course content

Climate Adaptation and Human Rights is a 5-credit (ECTS) online course at undergraduate level. The course is taught in English, part-time over seven weeks. It provides an introduction to climate adaptation, with a focus on how climate-related risks and disasters affect people, societies, and ecosystems, and on how adaptation measures can be designed in fair and sustainable ways.

The course addresses key concepts such as climate risks, vulnerability, equality, and human rights. You will gain an understanding of how climate change increases existing inequalities and how factors such as gender, age, disability, and socioeconomic conditions influence people’s ability to respond to the climate crisis. The rights-based FIRE Framework is used to analyse climate adaptation, governance, and decision-making processes at national and local levels.

The course combines theory with practical examples and concludes with case studies in which you will apply your knowledge in real-world contexts. Do you want to understand how climate adaptation can contribute to both reduced risks and strengthened social justice? Then this is the course for you.

Course design

The course consists of six modules and runs over seven weeks. The first five modules include online lectures accompanied by assigned readings. Each of the first five modules concludes with a mandatory quiz. To successfully complete the course, you must also submit a final written assignment, which is included in the sixth and final module.

The different parts of the course

Lectures

Each module includes several video lectures, which you access via the Canvas learning platform. You can watch the video lectures at a time that suits you, allowing you to plan and structure your studies flexibly.

Course literature and related legal sources

Alongside the lectures, you will also be provided with relevant legal sources and course literature. The course literature consists of articles from academic journals, websites, and book chapters, all of which are available on the course website.

Self-assessed quizzes

To continuously test your knowledge, a self-assessed multiple-choice quiz is included in each of the first five modules. The quizzes are mandatory, and a passing result is required in order to proceed to the next module.

Written assignment

The sixth and final module of the course includes a written assignment. The final grade for the course is based on the result of this assignment.

Information on registration

If you have been admitted to the course, you will receive an email from us shortly before the course starts with all the information you need to register. The email will be sent to the email address you provided on Universityadmissions.se.

If you have not received an email from us by the day before the course starts, please check your spam folder. If you cannot find the email there, contact us.

Once you have received the welcome letter with registration instructions, it is important that you register as soon as possible in order to keep your place on the course. Registration is completed via student.ladok.se. All necessary information is included in the welcome letter.

Early Discontinuation

If you decide to not complete the course, you may apply for an early withdrawal. If you withdraw early, you will be able to apply for the course again in the future. An early withdrawal must be made no later than three weeks after the course start; after that point, the withdrawal becomes final, and you will not be able to apply for the course again.

You can apply for an early withdrawal either via student.ladok.se or by sending an email to JXCA01 [at] jur [dot] lu [dot] se (JXCA01[at]jur[dot]lu[dot]se).

Re-registration

You must re-register if you wish to retake a course that you were previously registered for but did not complete.

Re-registration is only possible subject to availability and during a semester when the course is offered. Our courses are almost always fully subscribed, in which case re-registration is not possible.

If you only wish to be examined on remaining compulsory components, re-registration is not required. In that case, please contact us.

Credit transfer

The course cannot be included in or credited towards a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree at Lund University.