ECLIPSE – The Ethics of Climate Change: Duties, Responsibilities and Challenges

Course description

ECLIPSE is an interdisciplinary course designed to provide conceptual tools for developing skills in the ethics of climate change through a multifaceted and cross-disciplinary investigation. The course connects ethics with other disciplines to offer a comprehensive understanding of the complex issues related to climate change, emphasizing how justice must be conceived in terms of intergenerational justice. To achieve this, the program is structured into four didactic and scientific areas, complemented by two topic-oriented workshops. 

The four areas are the following: 

1. Ethics, with a conceptual overview on theories of reciprocity and intergenerational justice, sustainability, and behavioral change models;
2. Physics, with a general framework related to climate change, understood as a physical phenomenon involving meteorology and the composition of the atmosphere;
3. Law, with specific reference to the European and international legal framework reconstruction, in constant referring to the UNFCC COPs main documents and decisions (Dubai, Baku and the forthcoming Belém);
4. Finance, with a discussion about the climate finance possibilities and pledges at the international level, as well as their role in the “loss and damages” policies.

The two focus and correlative workshop are the following:

1. Water: The first topic-oriented workshop will be on the contemporary ethical and socio-economic challenges related to the individual usage and collective management of this fundamental resource, also with reference to its strategic role at the national and international level.
2. Energy: The second topic-oriented workshop will be on energy and its connections with climate change and development, with specific reference to energy justice domain, which will be addressed from a twofold perspective angle: the balancing between traditional sources and innovative sources; the necessary interplay between the “Global North” and the “Global South” of the planet.

Course target

The course is open to graduates, postgraduates, professionals, company employees and managers, civil servants, educators, technical staff, and trainers interested in deepening their understanding of climate change.

Training objectives 

ECLIPSE's main objective is to provide attendees with the necessary critical tools to acquire interdisciplinary ethical skills for their application in physics, law and finance domains, and in all spheres of social interaction at interindividual, company, national, and international levels.

These skills are and will be more than crucial for understanding and interpreting the issues related to climate change and their multifaceted impact on the social level, for the present and the future generations.

The course is designed to show climate change as a physical phenomenon with meteorological evidence, which entails ethical implications due to the consequence of actions, both on individual and collective levels. Choices and actions are also linked to law and finance as unavoidable parts of political decision-making processes from a national to the global point of view. The course has a strongly interdisciplinary focus, with the broader goal of stimulating and developing transversal skills.

Teaching methods

The course framework includes lectures, seminars, and cooperative learning (e.g., Oxford-style debates) on specific case studies. The teaching is organized in such a way as exploring four different thematic areas:

1. Ethics
2. Physics
3. Law
4. Finance

These areas are interrelated with each other for providing interdisciplinary and incremental skills. In addition, the two topic-oriented workshops include specific focus areas aimed at fostering and strengthening the interaction between instructors and attendees.

The teaching framework is based on a theoretical delivery followed by an interactive and cooperative workshop in which two or more groups engage in guided discussions and analyses on specific themes introduced by the trainers.

Structure and Contents

The course programme will be published in the coming weeks.

Attendance certificate

The Summer School awards the Certificate of Attendance.