Solving major societal crises through cross disciplinary actions – the example of climate solutions and carbon management for CO2-neutrality
PhD School at the Faculty of SCIENCE at University of Copenhagen
SCIENCE at UCPH and 20% og the seats are reserved to PhD students from other Danish Universities/faculties (except CBS).
Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at a Danish university (except CBS), you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to applicants on the waiting list.
The course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except CBS).
All other participants must pay the course fee (except if you are a master’s student from a Danish University).
Aim and Content
Aim:
The aim of this course is to demonstrate and discuss how solutions to major societal crises involve cross-disciplinary thinking and action. The course will use the climate crisis and the societal management and handling as an example and show how understanding of the carbon cycle, technologies for the handling and management of carbon, landscape planning, policy, economy, human engagement, and justice all are fundamental requirements for sustainable solutions.
Content:
Society faces several major challenges related to climate, biodiversity, pandemics, food supply and security. The solutions to these ‘wicked problems’ are far from trivial and involve a complex mix and interactions of knowledge from many different disciplines, spanning from scientific and technological, to economic, regulatory and public policy intervention, humanitarian and societal understanding.
Traditionally, universities are organized around disciplines giving students and candidates a strong and deep understanding of a particular field, while often overlooking cross-disciplinary understanding and solutions. Here, we will focus on solutions to major societal challenges by an interdisciplinary approach and through collaboration across all of UCPH’s 6 faculties to provide a holistic understanding and viable solutions.
Specifically, in this PhD course we will focus on the climate crisis as an example of such a major societal challenge. The course aims to demonstrate and discuss how solutions to this crisis depend on a fundamental shift in our approach to the use and management of carbon in society, and how this shift is dependent on inputs and understanding of basically every scientific discipline at the university.
For many decades we have used fossil carbon to gain energy, releasing carbon from deep geological deposits into the atmosphere as CO2. As a result, the Earth’s climate is changing drastically, with a multitude of severe consequences for human life on Earth. The solution is simple in theory: stop emissions of fossil CO2 into the atmosphere and reverse the carbon flow by reclaiming CO2 from the atmosphere to store it.
But as simple in theory, as complicated in practice. The society will have to reduce the use of fossil carbon drastically by transforming energy supply to renewables, move from linear to circular thinking in carbon use, develop technologies to capture and store CO2, develop alternative ways to provide the carbon needed for materials and chemicals based on atmospheric carbon capture, ensure coordination and collaboration across carbon handling sectors such as our food production. And we must develop laws, incentives, markets and regulatory instruments concerning CO2 to facilitate this transition, change human behavior, ensure public involvement, ownership and acceptance of solutions. A complex and truly interdisciplinary mix of efforts.
This PhD course will cover all the diverse aspects of the carbon problem and its solutions as part of the climate crisis. The course is therefore looking for PhD students from all scientific disciplines with an interest in solutions to major societal crises. Because of the breadth and complexity of the climate problem, no student will be familiar with all aspects – all students will have a “home turf” as well as areas of limited knowledge and understanding. This is the intention. The course will introduce all the scientific directions, allowing everyone with a keen interest in the field to participate, and provide the participants with a deeper understanding of both the technological and societal/humanitarian aspects.
Furthermore, tackling the climate crisis requires collaboration with civil society actors. Therefore, in each session, we will also host a guest lecturer from societal entities, who will provide an “on-the-ground” perspective on the discussion topic, together with the respective faculty member(s).
Learning outcomes
Intended learning outcome for the students who complete the course:
Knowledge
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to
• Understand the fundamentals of the global carbon cycle, and how the climate crisis is linked to the societal development and the use and management of carbon and how solutions require a fundamental change in energy- and land use and a move from linear to circular thinking in carbon management.
• Understand how solutions are dependent on societal and humanitarian interactions involving legal and regulatory frame setting, economic incentives, change in citizen behavior, democratic processes facilitating engagement and ownership and actions to protect the environment and biodiversity.
Skills
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to
• Analyse the key overall climate change and carbon aspects and stakeholder interests of a given societal case and suggest solutions based on improved management of carbon through technical, legal, economic and societal interventions.
• Analyse and explain how to include core stakeholder interests and potential trade-offs in solutions for carbon neutrality.
• Transfer the understanding of interdisciplinary approaches and interfaces between academic work and civil-society actors in climate solutions to solve other global challenges.
• Be able to engage in the public debate about the importance of societal and humanitarian interaction in the development of solutions to complex societal challenges.
Competences
• Competently outline and discuss the complex challenge and solution of carbon management in the climate crisis and the need for technological as well as societal and humanitarian approaches in developing solutions
Target Group
All PhD-students working with scientific questions relevant to solving major societal challenges
Recommended Academic Qualifications
MSc
Research Area
Interdisciplinary
The course builds on a wide range of disciplines: natural science to describe the carbon cycle, current carbon and energy management and alternative carbon solutions (biology, physics and chemistry); economic science to describe drivers and incentives in the existing and future climate neutral society; law and societal science to describe regulatory and political options for change; geography and planning to describe planning and priorities in future landscape designs and humanities to focus on civil society and public engagement.
The course aims to bring these sciences together in a holistic approach to understand current climate crises and cross disciplinary solutions.
Teaching and Learning Methods
The course will start with a general introduction to the climate crisis and the complex interaction of challenges and solutions needed to solve the crisis.
Following the intro, 6 course modules will present and discuss a specific “challenge” related to the climate crisis, including (1) the natural science understanding of carbon, (2) technological methods for saving, capturing and storing carbon (3) land use and landscape planning, (4) economic instruments and incentives, (5) regulatory, legal and justice aspects of climate solutions and (6) the need for democracy and public engagement in finding solutions.
The course will end with a foresight analysis and discussions by and among the students based on their personal scientific perspective on the crisis handling.
Each course module will be based on mandatory reading of key paper(s) related to the module focus, and each module will include short presentation(s) by the module organizers to put the reading in perspective and facilitate the discussions. Further, each course module will include participation and presentation by a “real life” professional working with the module perspective.
The course further involves a field trip to a project/municipality faced with climate related issues and challenges to find solutions.
Type of Assessment
Each PhD-student will finish the course by writing an “essay” (1500-2000 word) reflecting of the course outcomes and in particular perspectives related to their own research.
Literature
Course coordinators will select the relevant literature, which will consist of several papers and perspectives related to the specific subject. The specific literature has not yet been decided.
Course coordinator
Claus Beier, Professor, cbe@ign.ku.dk
Guest Lecturers
Each module will invite one guest lecturer.
These will be chosen from organisations, companies, think tanks, municipalities etc., who work within the climate solution arena and will represent a real life perspective on the exact challenge of each course module.
Tentative guest lectures are:
Full Name: Karsten Capion
Affiliated Institution: CONCITO
Full Name: Sten Riber
Affiliated Institution: SEGES
Full Name: Henrik Sulsbrück
Affiliated Institution: The Danish Energy Agency
Full Name: Peter Vind Larsen
Affiliated Institution: KIRKBI foundation
Morten Gøbel Poulsen
Affiliated Institution: OXFAM Denmark
Full Name: Morten Westergaard
Affiliated Institution: Middelfart Kommune
Dates
October 29 – November 19, 2025
Course location
Cross disciplinary course under GSC – therefore the venue will fluctuate across all KU campuses
Registration
Deadline for registration
September 26, 2025
Seats to PhD students from other Danish universities will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules.
Applications from other participants will be considered after the deadline for registration.
Cancellation policy
• Cancellations made up to two weeks before the course starts are free of charge.
• Cancellations made less than two weeks before the course starts will be charged a fee of DKK 3.000
• Participants with less than 80% attendance cannot pass the course and will be charged a fee of DKK 5.000
• No-show will result in a fee of DKK 5.000
• Participants who fail to hand in any mandatory exams or assignments cannot pass the course and will be charged a fee of DKK 5.000
Course fee and participant fee
PhD courses offered at the Faculty of SCIENCE have course fees corresponding to different participant types.
In addition to the course fee, there might also be a participant fee.
If the course has a participant fee, this will apply to all participants regardless of participant
type - and in addition to the course fee.