With increasingly devastating climate impacts across the globe, this year’s UN climate change conference COP28 is shaping up to be a pivotal moment for humanity. Billed as the “Implementation COP”, the pressure is on world leaders to walk the talk.
COP28
Taking place in Dubai from 30 November until 12 December 2023, COP28 marks the next high-stakes annual negotiations between nearly 200 countries on tackling the climate crisis. Attendees ranging from presidents to scientists to activists will assess progress since the prior year’s COP27 conference while attempting to ratchet up meaningful commitments.
Intensifying Pressure
In the wake of worsening extreme weather events and our collective failure to limit warming anywhere near to the targeted 1.5°C global cap set in Paris, the COP28 talks face intensifying scrutiny to deliver more aggressive emissions reduction targets and climate financing, especially for developing nations.
Questions Over UAE Leadership
As a leading OPEC oil producer, the UAE also faces growing questions over its suitability to spearhead COP28 as both the host nation and president of the critical negotiations. Its reliance on fossil fuel exports stands in conflict with the transformational shift away from hydrocarbons the world requires. Expect activist calls for the UAE and other petrostates to quicken their green energy transition domestically and beyond.
While the conference won’t single-handedly solve the climate crisis, COP28 represents perhaps our best opportunity to achieve consensus on bolder unified action.
Climate And Environment In The Pre-Modern World
Trinity College Dublin
Climate history is a rapidly evolving field of study that aims to: firstly reconstruct climate conditions over past centuries and millennia; and secondly understand how societies perceived and responded to changing climates and extreme weather. These aims can be best achieved by combining evidence from natural and human archives.
In this module we will examine the historical development of natural archives such as tree-rings and ice-cores and introduce how they can be used to reveal past climate variations. We will then examine how this information can be combined with evidence from human archives, including written and archaeological records, to understand the social impacts of climate change and extreme weather.
In doing so, we will draw upon case studies of major episodes of climate change in areas such as ancient Egypt, Babylonia, the ancient American Southwest, medieval Ireland, Japan, China, and beyond. We will examine the role explosive volcanic eruptions and rapid changes in the Sun’s output of energy played in causing extreme weather (that was often accompanied by major human impacts such as famine, disease and conflict), before studying how these societies adapted to these changes.
You may apply online or by phone* as follows:
ONLINE: You may register and pay by credit/debit card online at www.historieshumanities.tcd.ie/shortcourses AFTER enrolments open for each term.
By telephone: Please text ‘APPLY FOR COURSE’ to 087 2572015* and you will receive a call back from us.
Please check the School of Histories and Humanities website for updates on this course at: www.histories-humanities.tcd.ie/shortcourses/
| College Name | Trinity College Dublin |
| Course Category | History, Humanities & Social Sciences |
| Course Type | Seminar |
| Course Location | Dublin, Ireland |
| Location Postcode | Dublin 2 |
| Course Fee | 85. There is also a concession rate of €60 available to all those retired, over 65s, and those on a government pension / payment plan and the unwaged, including second- and third-level students. |
| Course Duration | This lecture-only module comprises one lecture per week over one term commencing in January 2024. |
| Awarding Body | Trinity College Dublin |
