Establishment of educational module “Climate Change” in the University of Liepaja

Abstract

Increase of awareness and high knowledge base of society in the field of climate change and environment in general in global and local ranges is vital to prevent future possible increase of climate changes in the world. In order to more involve society in prevention of future climate changes, national government has come up with National Climate Policy [1], which includes possibility for educational institutions such as University of Liepaja to develop educational programs, including lifelong and distance education programs. To achieve given objective, educational module “Climate Change” is created by University of Liepaja. Goal of this activity is to increase knowledge and capacity of governmental institutions, municipalities, scientific and educational institutions, private businesses, societies and foundations as well as separate members of society. Besides overall information on greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change, University of Liepaja concentrates more on practical questions, since, in our opinion, practical knowledge on how to use renewable resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions or even reuse them in industry will create larger impact on achieving the objective. Therefore University of Liepaja concentrates on following topics: practical use of different technical solutions in industry, technical equipment used in industry of renewable energy, technologies used to prevent greenhouse gas emissions and mathematical modeling of possible scenarios, when pollution occurs in populated areas. Developed materials will be available for society, especially for the members of the target group for educational purposes. Materials also can and will be used for distance education.