Public strategies for sustainable development

Teacher(s)

Kestemont Marie-Paule (coordinator); Rihoux Benoît; van Ypersele de Strihou Jean-Pascal;

Language

French

Main themes

The main theme relative to sustainable developement public strategies will be treated on legal, socio-political and scientific aspects. The approach will also be done in traverse way to the different decisions' steps - international - federal - local - and council, by the study of cases and different organizations like : Local (ex.: Union of cities and municipalities), regional (ex.: CWEDD), federal (ex. : CIDD, CFDD), common (ex.: EU, European Council) and world institutions (ex.: PNUD, PNUE) entrusted to elaborate implementation strategies of sustainable development politics (development of indicators of sustainable development (iSD), elaboration of plans (PEDD, PFDD); great world conferences (RIO and the Agenda 21, KYOTO and Conferences about the reduction of greenhouse effect gases …); interactions between scientists and the political deciders (IPCC …)

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	This DES in Environmental Sciences and Management has a professional finality. Its objective is to form people with a university degree to a multidisciplinary dialogue as well as to act and to decide in the field of the environment. Next to scientific theoretical acquisitions, an "environmental" specialist has to have a good knowledge of regional, federal and international strategies in what matters the environmental protection and sustainable development, as well as the institutions charged to facilitate their implementation. Indeed, as part of their future professional activities, the "environmental" specialists will have to act within these strategies' framework. This course aims to allow the students to acquire this knowledge of strategies and institutions. Such a course is also susceptible to interest other programs (political sciences, rights ) and should usefully appear as an option in programs of the faculties ESPO, DRT, AGRO, FSA and SC.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

The lecture is organised in two parts. The first part is a global introduction to public strategies for sustainable development. It is provided by the professors, addressing economic, political issues as well as the interface sciences / politics and the role of the expertise (case of the climatic strategies)
The second part is a set of debates led by external contributors, experts in specific areas related to some specific topic (varying from year to year). Examples of selected topics : food, biodiversity, climate change, GMO, energy, water, ...

Teaching methods

Part I Introduction (3 X 1h30)
1. Economic tools for sustainable development strategies
2. Politic analysis of public strategies for sustainable development and politic science.
3. Sciences and politics interface and the role of the expert - the case of climate strategies.
Part II Debates with the invited speakers (one guest per session of 1h30).

Evaluation methods

Individual written work of +/- 10 pages compound of two parts (50 % each), on one debate choosen by the student :

1. Summary of one of the conferences of the second part of the course.
2. Critical analysis, based on a interview with an "expert" (not one of guests for the conferences) and on readings, which puts in perspective the subject of the conference chosen with regard to the whole course (the masterful presentations of the first part and the other conferences). The synthesis of the interview is given in appendix.

Online resources

MOODLEUCL : lecture LENVI2010.

Faculty or entity

ENVI