ECON40615: ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE ECONOMICS

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• To provide students with an advanced knowledge and critical understanding of the economic aspects of environmental problems, with a particular focus on climate change, and of specialist economic tools to analyse and solve those problems.

• Topics may include:
• Pollution targets
• Pigouvian taxation
• Environment Externalities
• Property rights
• Coase's theorem
• International environmental problems and agreements
• Mitigation and Adaptation solutions to climate change
• Welfare change measurement for price and environmental quality changes
• Direct and indirect methods for environmental valuation and their data sources
• Revealed preference approaches and selected case studies
• Stated preference approaches and selected case studies

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• have an advanced knowledge and critical understanding of the contribution of economic analysis to the solution of complex environmental problems;
• have a critical appreciation of the role of free markets and/or government intervention in dealing with complex environmental problems;
• have a good understanding of the theory of economic value as it relates to changes in environmental quality and their theoretical measurement;
• have a practical understanding of the practice of economic valuation of environmental goods and their validity;
• have a critical knowledge of, and be able to engage in advanced discussion of, current political strategies for the protection of the environment from an economic standpoint;
• have explored, understood and appreciated the complexity and contradictions of the current academic literature and its implications for professional practice, and be able to identify open questions for their own research.

Subject-specific Skills:

• be able to solve complex optimisation problems algebraically, and make use of graphical analysis at an advanced level.

Key Skills:

• Written Communication;
• Planning, Organising and Time Management;
• Problem Solving and Analysis;
• Using initiative;
• Numeracy;
• Computer Literacy.

• A combination of lectures, seminars and guided reading will contribute to achieving the aims and learning outcomes of this module. Summative assessment by written assignment that will test students knowledge and understanding of the subject-matter, their critical judgement and problem-solving skills.

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