Course Welcome Video
This course introduces you to principles and practices of building a business case for climate action. A business case provides a rationale for action that is explicitly linked to an organization’s purpose and goals. A successful business case results not only in project approval, but it also ensures stakeholder buy-in and access to critical resources—both required to successfully implement the adaptation action.
Business cases are structured documents, informed by research and analysis, that provide clear and compelling justification for undertaking a particular course of action. Though the term “business case” may seem to imply that the justification it provides is financial, it is equally true that there will be moral, ethical, environmental and other justifications that support climate actions. The work in this course will introduce to business case modelling practices that are equally relevant to government, for profit and non-profit sectors (though the nature of the justification may differ).
In this course, you’ll work through various stages of business case development, starting with risk and opportunity recognition and monetary estimation before exploring three commonly used decision analysis methods: cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and multi-criteria analysis.
One of the most significant challenges to business case development for climate action activities is complexity. Given the complexity not only of climate systems, but also of social, political and economic systems as they adapt to climate change, future climate-related risks and opportunities cannot be reliably predicted based on past experience. As such, the course pays significant attention to decision analysis processes that can incorporate deep uncertainty.
Throughout the course, you will be applying the various methods to develop a climate action business case for a “live” client. This will enable you to hone your skills in a realistic context, while obtaining feedback from authentic stakeholders regarding the strengths and weaknesses of your approach. It will also help ensure that the product of your learning in the course extends beyond the learning cohort to provide tangible benefits to our communities.
In addition to supporting your capacity to develop a compelling business case for climate action, this course will also strengthen your overall understanding of the linkages between climate change and the economy.
Stay Connected
- To each other via the course blog and your own WordPress blogs – be sure to set up your Feedly. See here for instructions. You will need to add the OPML files to your Feedly for each course.
- #RRUMACAL on twitter;
- Instructor email addresses can be found in Moodle.