Carbon & Energy Management (ENVM7524)

Course overview

This course provides an advanced level of instruction and analysis on carbon and energy management principles and practices. Carbon and energy management is concerned with how society can best respond to climate change. A competent response to climate change requires a sound understanding of climate science and what the impacts of climate change are likely to be. A competent response to climate change also requires an understanding of how to manage different sources of carbon emissions, including the advantages and disadvantages of different power supply technologies and the management of carbon stocks in forests, soils and agriculture. We also need to know how to evaluate and compare the merits of different climate change response strategies and how Governments can promote effective responses through sound climate and energy policy. The course also includes instruction on a number of important carbon and energy management practices, such as carbon foot-printing, abatement and offset project design and appraisal, energy use auditing, alternative energy pathway design and appraisal, and emissions trading.

The course is structured around twelve important understandings of carbon and energy management. Those are; (1) understanding how climate systems work; (2) understanding the drivers and evidence of human-induced climate change; (3) understanding the expected impacts of climate changeﾠand principles ofﾠclimate risk assessment and climate justice; (4) understanding how the public and private sectors respondﾠto climate change; (5) understanding carbon inventory including emissions by country and source, currently and historically, plus foot printing methods for countries, organisations, products and services; (6) understanding the links between carbon, energy and sustainable electricityﾠsupply systems including key principles and terms,ﾠand issues of scale in sustainable electricity supply system design; (7) understanding the advantages and disadvantages of power supply technologies including coal, oil and gas (conventional and unconventional), nuclear, hydroelectric, solar, wind, wave, tidal, geothermal and bioenergy and topics of special interest such as carbon capture and storage (including negative emissions technologies, direct air carbon capture and storage and bioenergy carbon capture and storage), hydrogen fuel, batteries and electric vehicles; (8) understanding carbon stored in natural resources including methods to estimate carbon stocks and sequestration rates in soils and vegetation (particular planted and natural forests) and the opportunities and limitations for the use of nature-based responses to climate change including climate-smart agriculture; (9) understanding carbon offsetting principles, processes and practise including major offsetting schemes, concepts of co-benefits, blue carbonﾠand REDD+; (10) understanding methods to assess emissions reduction options including marginal abatement cost curves, basic project financial appraisal methods, total systems cost analysis for electricity supply systems, the social cost of carbon and the works of William Nordhaus; (11) understanding climate and energy policy, including key international frameworks such as the UNFCCCﾠand related initiatives, insights from the history of climate and energy policy in Australia, and lessons from noteworthy initiatives such as the Australian Renewable Energy Targetﾠandﾠthe Green Climate Fund; and (12) understanding the role ofﾠinsurance and finance in responses to climate change, including the influenceﾠof the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures, and insights from government-led climate financeﾠinitiatives such as the Australian Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

Course requirements

Incompatible

You can't enrol in this course if you've already completed the following:

ENVM2522, ENVM1522 (co-taught).

Jointly taught details

This course is jointly-taught with:

• ENVM1522

To be supplied

Course contact

Course staff

Timetable

The timetable for this course is available on the UQ Public Timetable.

Aims and outcomes

The aim of this course is to improve students' understanding of carbon and energy management to enable them to competently engage in responses to climate change.

Learning outcomes

After successfully completing this course you should be able to:

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment details

Case Study on Carbon Management

• Online

Mode

Written

Category

Paper/ Report/ Annotation

Weight

40% Individual

Due date

14/10/2024 2:00 pm

In this, students are expected to select a company of their interest and do a report demonstrating their understanding of the course.

Task description

Submission guidelines

Students MUST submit an electronic copy of their report through Turnitin in Blackboard

Deferral or extension

You may be able to apply for an extension.

The maximum extension allowed is 7 days. Extensions are given in multiples of 24 hours.

Late submission

You will receive a mark of 0 if this assessment is submitted late.

Practical Assessments

• Online

Mode

Written

Category

Practical/ Demonstration

Weight

30% Individual

Due date

12/08/2024 - 21/10/2024

Task description

Submission guidelines

Submit via link on Blackboard

Deferral or extension

You may be able to apply for an extension.

The maximum extension allowed is 7 days. Extensions are given in multiples of 24 hours.

Late submission

You will receive a mark of 0 if this assessment is submitted late.

Quiz 1

• Online

Mode

Written

Category

Quiz

Weight

10% Individual

Due date

9/09/2024 - 13/09/2024

Quiz 1 has a time limit of 20 minutes, however there will be a quiz window of 5 days that a student can access and attempt the quiz online through the course on Blackboard

Task description

Submission guidelines

Submit online.

Deferral or extension

You may be able to apply for an extension.

The maximum extension allowed is 7 days. Extensions are given in multiples of 24 hours.

Late submission

You will receive a mark of 0 if this assessment is submitted late.

Quiz 2

• Online

Mode

Written

Category

Quiz

Weight

20% Individual

Due date

21/10/2024 - 25/10/2024

Quiz 2 has a time limit of 40 minutes, however there will be a quiz window of 5 days that a student can access and attempt the quiz online through the course on Blackboard

Task description

Submission guidelines

Submit online.

Deferral or extension

You may be able to apply for an extension.

The maximum extension allowed is 7 days. Extensions are given in multiples of 24 hours.

Late submission

You will receive a mark of 0 if this assessment is submitted late.

Course grading

Full criteria for each grade is available in the Assessment Procedure.

Additional course grading information

PERFORMANCE HURDLE: Students are required to achieve a mark of 50% to pass the course.

Supplementary assessment

Supplementary assessment is available for this course.

Should you fail a course with a grade of 3, you may be eligible for supplementary assessment. Refer to my.UQ for information on supplementary assessment and how to apply. 

Supplementary assessment provides an additional opportunity to demonstrate you have achieved all the required learning outcomes for a course.  

If you apply and are granted supplementary assessment, the type of supplementary assessment set will consider which learning outcome(s) have not been met.  

Supplementary assessment can take any form (such as a written report, oral presentation, examination or other appropriate assessment) and may test specific learning outcomes tailored to the individual student, or all learning outcomes. 

To receive a passing grade of 3S4, you must obtain a mark of 50% or more on the supplementary assessment. 

Additional assessment information

Performance hurdle: Students are required to achieve a mark of 50% to pass the course.

Applications for Extensions

Information on applying for an extension can be found here - my.UQ Applying for an extension

Extension applications must be received by the assessment due date and time.

If you are unable to provide documentation to support your application by the due date and time you must still submit your application on time and attach a Word document outlining why you cannot provide the documentation and upload the documentation to the portal within 24 hours.

Please note: While your extension request is being considered, you should work towards completing and submitting your assessment as soon as possible.

If you have been ill or unable to attend class for more than 4 weeks in a semester, we advise you to carefully consider whether you are capable of successfully completing your courses. You might need to consider applying for removal of course. We strongly recommend you seek advice from the Faculty that administers your program.

Extensions with Student Access Plans (SAP)

For extensions up to 7 days, your SAP is all that is required as documentation to support your application. However, extension requests longer than 7 days (for any one assessment item) will require the submission of additional supporting documentation e.g., a medical certificate. A maximum of two applications may be submitted for any one assessment item, unless exceptional circumstances can be demonstrated. All extension requests must be received by the assessment due date and time.

Academic Integrity: 

All students must complete the Academic Integrity Tutorial: https://www.uq.edu.au/integrity/

Artificial Intelligence Use (AI)

The assessment tasks in this course evaluate students’ abilities, skills, and knowledge without the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Students are advised that the use of AI technologies to develop responses is strictly prohibited and may constitute misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.

Turnitin

By submitting work through Turnitin you are deemed to have accepted the following declaration “I certify that this assignment is my own work and has not been submitted, either previously or concurrently, in whole or in part, to this University or any other educational institution, for marking or assessment”.

Students can download the digital receipt in the Assignment inbox to confirm successful submission. A valid Turnitin receipt will be the only evidence accepted if assessments are missing. Without evidence, the assessment will receive 10% per day of the available marks late penalty deduction, and after seven days, will receive zero marks.

In the case of a Blackboard outage, please contact the Course Coordinator as soon as possible to confirm the outage with ITS.

Learning resources

You'll need the following resources to successfully complete the course. We've indicated below if you need a personal copy of the reading materials or your own item.

Library resources

Library resources are available on the UQ Library website.

Learning activities

The learning activities for this course are outlined below. Learn more about the learning outcomes that apply to this course.

Policies and procedures

University policies and procedures apply to all aspects of student life. As a UQ student, you must comply with University-wide and program-specific requirements, including the:

• Student Code of Conduct Policy
• Student Integrity and Misconduct Policy and Procedure
• Assessment Procedure
• Examinations Procedure
• Reasonable Adjustments - Students Policy and Procedure

Learn more about UQ policies on my.UQ and the Policy and Procedure Library.