Development of an Interdisciplinary Programme on Climate Change and Sustainability Policy

Climate change is seen as the most critical challenge facing humanity worldwide. This is also visible in the Arab region. The key question is how can we cope with its impacts (adaptation), and how can we limit future climate change (mitigation)? Climate change requires bridging the isolated academic fields in order to develop sustainable alternatives and to facilitate policy choices towards climate change risks. There is a critical need for Middle East universities in light of the climate change challenges their region is facing to cultivate interdisciplinary expertise among their future leaders across many of the societal sectors.
The CLIMASP project aims to:
• Develop a minor in Climate Change and Sustainability Policy, which will offer students the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to tackle the challenges of climate change and turn them able to act as agents of change locally and globally.
• Develop capacity-building programmes to train university teaching staff and key administrators for interdisciplinary collaboration and building partnerships with local/regional and national partners.
• Involve university staff and other key stakeholders (e.g., students, professionals) in the development of an undergraduate interdisciplinary programme in climate change and Sustainability Policy in each partner country university.
• Integrate and implement the CLIMASP programme as an integral part to existing undergraduate academic degrees in disciplines such as education sciences, applied sciences, technical sciences, economics/business sciences, and social sciences.