Climate Change Resilience Series

Join Antioch University New England’s Center for Climate Preparedness and Community Resilience for a series of online courses focused on the fundamentals of climate change resilience. There are two ways to learn! You may sign-up for individual courses below or apply for the 9-credit Climate Resilience Certificate for Professionals.

With the ever-increasing and visible impacts from a changing climate, this series of courses, developed within the Sustainable Development and Climate Change concentration of the MS in Environmental Studies program at AUNE, is designed to prepare professionals to incorporate resilience strategies into planning, implementation, and evaluation within any domain of resource management and environmental protection.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines climate resilience as “the capacity of social, economic, and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity, and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning, and transformation” (IPCC, 2014b, p. 1772).

Climate resilience includes aspects of both mitigation and adaptation.

Mitigation involves actions to reduce human-caused greenhouse gas emissions that add to the heating of the atmosphere. Adaptation involves actions that counteract or reduce vulnerability of human systems to climate change impacts.

This series will enable you to:

• Clearly communicate your understanding of current approaches to both mitigation and adaptation, at various scales of implementation.
• Effectively demonstrate an understanding of the interrelation amongst climate change, and water, food, and energy security.
• Provide evidence of ability to structure a vulnerability analysis.
• Articulate preferred adaptation strategies for identified vulnerabilities.
• Demonstrate how to judge the effectiveness of a message generated by either the scientific community or the media that targets decision-makers and the general public about the risks associated with climate change.
• Analyze the effectiveness of a stakeholder engagement process designed to have decision-makers respond to a specific vulnerability.

Each course is designed to stand alone, and you may take courses in any order. Courses may be completed online from your location. Enroll for either graduate credit (1 credit per course) or audit and receive continuing education.

Details of the courses are below.

Is this for me?

These courses are geared toward individuals working on the ground in resource management, hazard mitigation, community planning, business and organizational operations, as well as other professionals looking to expand their knowledge of “how to” implement climate resilience. At the conclusion of each course, participants will leave with specific knowledge and hands-on strategies to implement in their job and their communities. Specifically, this course will benefit:

• Municipal and county professionals (city, county, and town managers; emergency management staff, planners, public works staff, zoning staff)
• State and regional personnel (energy and environment officials, hazard mitigation officers, public health officials, regional planners)
• Local decision-makers (municipal, county, regional, watershed)
• Elected and appointed officials (city councilors, Select board members, Planning Board members, Conservation Commission Members, Zoning Board members)
• Emergency preparedness and hazard mitigation professionals
• Business leaders and staff wanting to increase resilience and business continuity in the face of climate impacts
• Staff of non-profit resource management organizations
• Private environmental consultants

Available Courses

Registration Information

Each of the courses in the climate change resilience series may be taken for 1-credit of graduate education or may be audited. Please indicate on your registration form if you desire the course for academic credit or desire to audit.

Register Here

Academic Credit

Individuals who enroll for academic credit will have the course(s) noted on an AUNE transcript and will be graded for the course. Upon completion and processing of the course by the Registrar’s office, then official transcripts can be requested.

Please note that Antioch University New England does not use traditional letter grades. Instead, students will be assessed in four areas: class participation, mastery of course content, quality of documentation, and an overall grade. Learn more about narrative assessment.

If you are interested in earning the Climate Resilience Certificate for Professionals, then a maximum of 2 credits can be earned as a non-matriculated student before one must matriculate.  Contact admissions for information on applying to matriculate.  If you do not desire to earn the Climate Resilience Certificate for Professionals, then you are welcome to take as many of the courses as you like as a non-matriculated student.

Audit

Those who enroll to audit the course will not be graded or receive academic credit.

Certificates of Attendance

Certificates of attendance will be available upon request to all individuals who participate in all four weeks of the course.

Course Fees

Cancellation and Refunds

Non-matriculated students – requests for cancellations and requests to withdraw from the course that are received in writing 2-days or more before the course starts will be eligible for a full refund. Requests made less than 2-days before the course starts are not eligible for any refund.  Requests should be made in writing to Shelley Viles, Director of Centers, Institutes, and Projects, Antioch University New England, 40 Avon St. Keene, NH 03431 or [email protected]

Current matriculated students will follow the usual withdrawal and refund policies for AUNE. Please withdraw via an email to the Antioch University Registrar’s Office and also copy [email protected]

Technical Requirements

For this online course, students will need access to the internet, a computer able to access office suite software, and the ability to participate in online meetings, including video and audio.

We will be using Zoom for online meetings. Please check the Zoom Support Center for system requirements.