COVID-19 or climate emergency

Covid-19 and sustainable development

COVID-19 pandemic and climate change emergency have been so far the highlights of 2020.

You are asked to write a report commenting on how COVID-19 or climate emergency interact with the sustainable development (SD) legal principles and agendas in the related areas.

Your answer should draw from the various aspects and topics of the module and you should use examples from the broader international environment or your own country or region to highlight the above interaction. 

Your report should also contain an evaluation of whether COVID-19 or climate emergency actually help to accelerate the implementation of sustainability agenda or whether these events raise significant obstacles.

Finally, your report should make recommendations on how the sustainability agenda should be adapted to ensure that these events will not derail the achievement of the stated sustainability goals.……………………………………..

Sustainable development legal principles

Your answer should be in the form of a report and could combine materials from any topic or combination of topics of the module and your own research on sustainability and COVID-19 or climate emergency.You are expected to analyse only one of the two topics (COVID or climate emergency) and not both.

The goal of your analysis should be to explain how these global events can impact on the achievement of sustainability objectives (e.g in the area of healthcare, climate change etc).

You should first identify which sustainability goals can be impacted from the events and following a critical evaluation of the main positive and negative impacts giving examples from developments in your own country, region or internationally, your report should evaluate how the impact affects, overall, the progress of SD in the affected areas.  Sustainable development in 2020.

Finally, your recommendations should focus on how any negative impact should be addressed.As these events are current you are expected to use plenty of recent reports and publications on these events.

The overall word count for the report should be 3,500 words. The report should be fully referenced using authoritative sources.

At the end of the report you should add a reflective account of up to 500 words (assessed) where you should explain and evaluate the learning process which you followed in order to write the report and meet the learning outcomes of the module. You do not have to use references for this part. 

The total word count for the coursework including the report and reflective account is up to 4,000 words. The word count does not include table of contents, list of bibliography at the end and references/footnotes. More detailed guidance about the academic style of writing, the avoidance of plagiarism and referencing are provided in the module handbook. Sustainable development

An indicative structure of the report is as follows:

• Introduction (250-500 words): Identify and explain the topic/issue, which you intend to cover in the report and provide a brief explanation of how you intend to analyse it and what you intend to show as a result of the analysis. 

• Main body (2,500-3,000 words):

-Present and analyse the relevant SD agreements/principles which apply to the specific topic/issue emphasising the key sustainability objectives of the law.

-Present and analyse the positive and negative impact from COVID-19 and climate emergency.

-Critically evaluate how these events, overall impact on the progress of SD agenda and offer recommendations for addressing any negative impact.

• Conclusions (250-500 words): Summarise the key points of your report and add a statement on how you see law and policy developing in the future in the relevant area.

Reflective account (500 words):

You could include your motivation for selecting the topic, what you expected to learn from researching and analysing it and if you finally achieved your objectives.

You could also include references to any challenges you faced in your research and how you resolved them.The content of both the report and the reflective account should be sufficient to allow you to meet the learning outcomes of the module which are as follows:

1. Critically analyse at a practical and theoretical level, the contemporary political, social and economic context in which sustainable development law operates.

2. Appreciate the conceptual relationship between the elements of sustainable development and their underlying theoretical philosophy andframeworks

3. Carry out independent research in the relevant field using a range of primary and secondary sources.

4. Use evidence, arguments, assumptions and abstract theories of inter-national sustainable development law to formulate judgements or identify solutions to theoretical or practical problems.

The detailed assessment criteria are provided at the end of the brief. For a good result, a good level of research, analysis and discussion, using authoritative legal sources will be required.

You should make sure that the coursework has a clear structure and content, it has adequate headings and sub-headings, all sources used are properly acknowledged and referenced and you have included a list of bibliography at the end. In the discussion, you should focus more on the arguments and the recommended solutions rather than on problem description.