Environmental policy is essential for coping with, and ultimately solving, many of the challenges currently faced by the planet. However, the process of environmental policymaking itself is faced with challenges, including divergent values, lack of trust between actors, historically derived trajectories, political inaction, and sometimes a simple lack of awareness by much of the general public of how it actually works. This makes it difficult for researchers working on topics related to the environment, ecology and biodiversity to know how to approach the juggernaut of environmental policymaking.
The primary aim of this short intensive doctoral course is to enable doctoral researchers and early-career scholars to learn effective skills for communicating science to policy-relevant audiences. The course will examine environmental problems from a policy perspective, looking at what researchers and scientists can do to better engage with and speak to policy. The focus will be on both local and global environmental issues with an emphasis on EU-level and Finnish policy. The course covers: the history of environmental policymaking, how the science-policy-society system works, and policy relevance of a range of environmental issues relevant to contemporary society. The course will help students understand what constitutes effective environmental policy, and how academic research, engagement, advocacy and activism can be used to help protect the environment. It will include writing sessions where students get to work on their own ideas for environmental policies.
- Opettaja: Roger Norum