GLOBAL CHANGE AND SUSTAINABILITY

This course will introduce the major global challenges of our time, with a focus on sustainability, sustainable development, and climate change, the challenge that more than anything else requires global actions and a global change. The course has the objective of introducing students without an economic background to the economic approaches that can be used to address and solve global challenges. Students will understand why the environment is an economic resource and why economic tools and concepts can help achieve better management of environmental resources and facilitate the transition towards a more sustainable future. Students will learn how to frame sustainability within the boundaries set by the planetary ecological ceilings and the basic social needs. They will learn why and how environmental policies can move society and the economy towards a more sustainable path. Case studies and examples will be used to illustrate the types of policies that can be used at national and international level, and how national and sub-national interests can affect the ability to put these policies into practice. Climate change will be explored in more detail as an example of an international environmental problem.

• Understand how economic tools can be used to improve the environment
• Understand markets and market failures
• Understand and know environmental economics and policy instruments
• Understand and know international environmental agreements
• Understand how to apply Ostrom approach to common goods
• Identify sources of knowledge and reliable data sources to develop critical reflections on assigned or chosen topics regarding environmental issues and related
• Articulate an argument in a scientific manner and contribute critically to discussions
• Work in a group
• Navigate multiple sources of information (Many readings, for such a course there is no single textbook!)

There are no specific prerequisites. Students are expected to have an interest in the subject and to take the course and prepare for the labs seriously.

The first part of the course will present a critical discussion of the major global challenges that require global action. Questions such as: How did we become a force of nature? What are the links between the economy and the environment? What are the approaches to sustainability? Why is climate change getting so much attention? The second part of the course will introduce the basic theory of economic approaches to global challenges and policies. It will review the history of environmental and climate change economics. It will explain why global challenges are often global public goods that require international coordination and policy action. The course will introduce some of the economic approaches that can be used to think about social-ecological systems: game theory, strategic interaction, Ostrom's framework. The course will also explain the policy instruments available to address global challenges and review the historical development of major international environmental agreements. Specific topics:
• Introduction: Defining Global Change & Sustainability (2 lectures)
• Economic Tools to deal with Global Change & Sustainability (6 lectures)
• Applications of tools to global changes and sustainability issues and case studies (2 lectures)
• Final project & Labs (5 lectures)

Angner, How economics can save the world, Introduction Chapter 3, Chapter 9, Chapter 10

Field & Field (2009) Environmental Economics, Chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 (moodle)

The Core Team. The Economy. Chapters 4, 12, 20. Freely available at https://www.core-econ.org/the-economy/ (optional. This can be a nice integration to the Field & Field)

Barrett Scott (2001). Environment & Statecraft. The strategy of environmental treaty-making. Oxford University Press, Chapters 1, 6, 8, 15. Available at BEC.

Barrett, Scott (2007). Why cooperate? The incentive to supply global public goods. Oxford university press, Chapters 1, 3, Available at BEC.

• Oral exam: begin with an individual OR group oral presentation on a project they can develop in groups during the course (max 3 students per group)
• The presentation is then followed by individual questions
• Presentation: 8 minutes; Questions: 2/3 question each.
• Questions will cover all topics addressed in the lectures and in the material available on moodle.

The topics for the presentation:
1. Climate adaptation
2. SDGs and climate policies
3. Ostrom approach to common goods
4. IEAs
5. Policy instruments
Format: retrospective, prospective (e.g. imagine future adaptation or mitigation scenarios), can be a power point, but also an artistic content
Sources: academic literature, books, movies, arts, contemporaneous of from the past

written and oral

The lecturer has a duty to ensure that the rules regarding the authenticity and originality of exam tests and papers are respected. Therefore, if there is suspicion of irregular conduct, an additional assessment may be conducted, which could differ from the original exam description.

30L: excellent knowledge of the concepts and subject matter of the question; excellent understanding of the question; excellent ability to summarise evidence from the literature; ability to articulate a critical assessment of existing literature; excellent communicative oral skills.
30: excellent knowledge of the concepts and subject matter of the question; excellent understanding of the question; excellent ability to summarise evidence from the literature; excellent communicative oral skills.
27-29: very good knowledge of the concepts and subject matter of the question; very good understanding of the question; very good ability to summarise evidence from the literature; very good communicative oral skills.
24-26: good knowledge of the concepts and subject matter of the question; good understanding of the question; good ability to summarise evidence from the literature; good communicative oral skills.
18-23: good knowledge of the concepts and subject matter of the question; fair understanding of the question; fair ability to summarise evidence from the literature; fair communicative oral skills.
Insufficient: patchy/incomplete knowledge of the concepts and subject matter of the question; fair understanding of the question; insufficient ability to summarise evidence from the literature.
The assessment will evaluate students' understanding of concepts and topics both in their presentation and in their answers to individual questions.

10 lectures, 5 workshop-style sessions (presentations and discussions)

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Climate change and energy" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development