Create a 2-page Information Sheet that outlines the evolution of climate policy in a country of your choice. Identify the key actors, events and influences that have shaped policy in that country. 

In your information sheet, you are encouraged to consider: 

• Current targets and goals to address climate change; 
• Key climate change policies, programs and institutions; 
• Comparisons with other countries;
• Participation in international forums and agreements; 
• Influential domestic organisations and actors; 
• Barriers to progress; and
• Socio-cultural, economic and ethical contexts that influence climate policy development and implementation.

The Information Sheet is expected to be delivered in a way that would effectively inform a general audience as to the state of play for climate change policy development in your country of choice. You are expected to draw from academic (e.g. academic journal articles) as well as non-academic sources (e.g. government and non-government policy documents, reports, media coverage, etc.).

One of the key challenges for those working on climate change is communicating complex concepts and initiatives to different audiences. There are two submissions required for this assignment.

Task 1: An individual e-presentation script (1,000-word script - 20%)

Task 1 of this assignment is an individual task. You are required to prepare a 1,000-word script, which will provide an outline of the e-presentation that you will create with a team (see task 2). This script will be formatted in an AV script. A detailed explanation of what should be included in the script will be given in class during week 6. Your script is due in week 8 and should then be shared with the team members you will be working with on task 2 (see below). Each team will either a) self-select one of the team member’s scripts, or; b) decide to combine elements from their scripts to make into the finished e-presentation.

Please note that all individual scripts are also expected to be submitted to the Unit Convenor via email in week 8. This component will comprise 50% of your mark for this assignment (individual).

Task 2: Group e-presentation on mitigation strategies (7 minutes - 20%)

Task 2 requires you to work in a small group (between 4 and 6 people) and create an e-presentation oriented at promoting a particular mitigation strategy of your choice to a general audience (i.e. something that might be posted on youtube or a website with important and valuable information about climate change, for example).  

The e-presentation should be no more than 7 minutes long and can take the form of a podcast, digital story, video, slowmation, blended media or narrated powerpoint. The e-presentation should explain the mitigation strategy and provide convincing arguments for its adoption.

If you are not already familiar with e-presentations, this assignment will require you to develop some technical communication skills and have access to presentation software (such as powerpoint, imovie or windows movie maker). A workshop will be held in week 6 and help with this, however, you are also expected to develop these skills through accessing other helpful information in your own time such as online forums and training modules. A valuable website which contains much of the information you require is - http://www.digiexplanations.com/. Also, Lynda.com is available to all Macquarie students.

Please note that this task is expected to be submitted to the Unit Convenor via email. In addition, each team is required to email the Unit Convenor outlining the contribution of individual team members (the format for this will be clarified in class). This component will comprise 50% of your mark for this assignment (group). The presentations will be shown in class and be followed by a public question and answer session (week 12).

For this assessment task, you are invited to give a 5-10 minute oral presentation (weighting 20%) and publish a 2,000-word fully-referenced essay (weighting 20%) in the proceedings of a conference workshop entitled 'Pathways towards ethical and just climate-resilient futures'.  

You must submit via email a one-paragraph abstract (max. 250 words) to the Unit Convenor for approval at least 2 weeks prior to the conference. You are encouraged to respond creatively to the conference theme. In your response you should outline a potential research project that could be completed in the second year of your MRes degree. It can be a fictional project or be related to what you actually intend to do. It is important the project has a clear aim and methods and draws upon current research in the field. Some topics you might like to consider are:

• Ethical dimensions of a particular adaptation strategy;
• Human and non-human climate justice issues;
• Climate vulnerabilities;
• Preparing for climate disasters;
• Building capacities in people and places; 
• Promising strategies and initiatives from around the world.

Please note that your topic must be different to your mitigation strategies e-presentation topic.

If we are to address the challenges of climate change it is important that we act as informed and involved citizens. This means participating in climate change debates effectively both face-to-face and online. This final assessment task requires your active participation in class and in the online discussion forum (via iLearn) and is aimed at developing your communication skills, both in person and online via iLearn, enabling you to actively participate in climate change discussions, advocacy and action out in the broader community.  Your contribution to class and the online discussion forum will be assessed over the entire semester. This is not a matter of being the loudest voice in class but rather a matter of engaging insightfully and effectively with the issues being discussed. 

Participation will be assessed across the whole semester in terms of: 

• Class attendance (5%)
• Class participation (5%) (including online discussion forum via iLearn)

You are expected to come to class prepared to contribute to class discussion which will take place each week sometime after the lecture. This means that you are expected to have prepared for class as requested by the guest lecturer (this may vary from week to week and will be posted on iLearn via an announcement close to a week in advance) including carefully and critically attending to the set readings.

Based on the set readings, you are expected to prepare two questions that would guide a class discussion following each guest lecture. The two questions have to be submitted to the discussion forum on iLearn prior to class. Each week a number of people will be called upon randomly (on the spot) to co-lead a discussion, making use of the submitted questions prepared by fellow students. Each person will be allocated 5 minutes presentation time. You are expected to co-lead a class discussion at least once over the semester. In addition, you are expected to contribute critically during class discussion and the online discussion forum. You will be assessed according to the quality of your contribution over the whole semester. If for some reason you do not get a chance to say much in class, you will still be able to achieve a good grade through class attendance and participation in the online discussion forum.  

The intention is for the co-leaders to facilitate an impromptu and fluid group discussion based on the set readings by making insightful and critical comments, and posing questions to the class. You may like to consider:  

• What questions the readings either together or separately raised for you?
• What you found interesting?
• What you found helpful and not so helpful?
• What you think was missing (if anything) and what could have been done better?
• How did these papers compare to the lecture content and academic literature covered to date i.e. similar or opposing views, aims, methods etc.