B2121 - CLIMATE POLICY AND COMMODITY MARKETS

Academic Year 2023/2024

  • Teaching Mode: Blended Learning
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Greening Energy Market and Finance (cod. 5885)

Learning outcomes

The module will offer students an interdisciplinary perspective on climate-related economic and financial risks and on the appropriate societal responses to mitigate them. At the end of the course students will have developed a solid knowledge of the academic literature and policy debate on how climate change and the decarbonization process might affect economic activity, and vice versa.

Course contents

The course is the second module of the integrated course ‘Climate-related risks and commodity markets’, which will take place in the second semester (period P), from 6.11.2023 to 15.12.2022. Please see here for information on the first module.

The module will provide an overview on interactions between commodity and energy markets and climate policy, with an interdisciplinary but primarily economic perspective. Markets covered will include some / all of: fossil resources (coal, oil, gas); electricity; emission permit markets.

In particular, the module will cover the following topics:

  • The economics of natural gas and oil: scarcity, market power, politics.
  • The economics of coal: cost, international trade.
  • Electricity trading: a pan-European perspective.
  • Emission permit markets.
  • The green transition and commodity markets
  • Climate impacts and commodity markets
  • Climate policy and climate politics, in relation to all of the above.

Readings/Bibliography

There is no specific, single textbook for this module. Most of the readings will be in the form of academic articles, to be posted on Virtuale during the course.

Teaching methods

The course will be a combination of frontal lectures and in-class exercises.

Assessment methods

Assessment will be based on the final written exam (50%), a take-home essay (30%) and two pieces of assessed coursework (10% each, for 20% total).

The exam will last 90 minutes and will include a written question (short essay or short answers) on commodity market facts, and a mathematical problem. Students can decide to reject the grade obtained at the exam only once.


Grading is as follows:

  • <18 fail
  • 18-23 pass
  • 24-27 good
  • 28-30 very good
  • 30L excellent

Teaching tools

All the course material (slides, readings etc.) will be made available on Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Niko Samuli Jaakkola