70049 - Global Environmental Challenges

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is an understanding of the major sustainability issues the world is currently facing: overharvesting of renewable resources, biodiversity loss, and, above all, global climate change. By the end of the course, students are expected to comprehend these issues with respect to their scientific basis, economic incentives, and management policies.

Course contents

The course objective is to provide the tools for the understanding of the economics of climate change at the national and global level. It studies the interconnections of ecological issues with economic and political processes.

This is an intermediate-level economics class. If students have never taken both an introductory economics class and an introductory statistics class. I recommend avoiding to sign up to Global Environmental Challenges.

*Note for Erasmus and exchange students*
you need to have already passed an introductory economics class and an introductory statistics class in order to be familiar with the concepts used in Global Environmental Challenges.


Lectures will be on the BOLOGNA campus in the SECOND semester and will be organized around the following topics:

• Introduction to climate change
• Sustainability
• Impacts of climate change
• Mitigation as a social dilemma
• Adaptation
• Negative emission technologies
• Climate Geoengineering
• Carbon pricing
• Mitigation as an international issue
• Discounting, or how to compare the present and the future
• Risk and uncertainty in climate change
• Inequality of climate responsibilities and impacts
• Economic models of climate change
• The political economy of climate policies

Readings/Bibliography

Readings include a reference textbook (required) and several other readings: some are required while others only recommended. The reference textbook is Richard S.J. Tol (2019) Climate Economics: Economic Analysis of Climate, Climate Change and Climate Policy.

In Virtuale, the student will find in due time the material for the class. This will include a detailed syllabus for the class, the slides already presented, the required reading (except the main textbook). The Virtuale website will be updated continuously and it is recommended to check it weekly.

For those with a weak Economics training, here are three background readings:
* Game theory: M. Jackson, Brief introduction to the basics of game theory (21 pages).
* Risk & Uncertainty: Nicholson et al. (2008) Intermediate Microeconomics, Uncertainty (11 pages).
* Discounting: Nicholson et al. (2008) Intermediate Microecon., Compound interest (13 pages).

Teaching methods

 

During lectures, I expect the active participation of students with comments and questions.

Presentation slides will support the delivery of lectures and will be available to students after each lecture.

There will be some in-class activities for students to introduce key concepts.

Assessment methods

This is an intermediate-level economics class. There is no formal pre-requisite, however if you have not taken at least one introductory economics course and one statistical course, then you will lack the basic concepts and terminology for this class, such as expected value or interest rate.

The class will require a considerable effort, especially if you aim at a good grade. The assessment will be about your level of understanding and your ability to work with the concepts. Memory is a pre-requisite to a successful exam, but the ability to repeat concepts will not suffice.

Written exam. The exam will be organized in short essays that focus on defining concepts, illustrating theories, reporting empirical evidence, providing interpretations, solving numerical exercises. The written exam will last about two hours and you can bring only a hand calculator. Smart watches, glasses and phones must remain out of the room, or at least switched off and out of sight in your backpack or briefcase.

Attending classes is recommended but is not enough. You are expected to carefully do the readings and to have acquired the material covered in the slides. The maximum score that can be obtained by providing all correct and complete answers is 30 cum laude. A minimum grade of 18/30 in the written exam is required to pass the class.

If you reject the grade or fail the exam, you cannot take the appello immediately after (salto di appello).

Student presentations. You may have the chance to prepare and deliver to the class a group presentation on a topic chosen out of a list. The presentation can add 1, 2, or 3 bonus points on top of your written exam grade.
- the bonus points are added to the class grade only if you obtain 18/30 or more on the written exam
- the bonus points will be added to your grade on your first attempt to do the written exam. If you fail the exam, or you reject the grade, then no bonus points will be added to any later appello.

Teaching tools

Slide presentations
Frontal lectures
In-class games

Office hours

See the website of Marco Casari