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

Lectures and readings will be in English. The textbook is Richard S.J. Tol (2019) Climate Economics: Economic Analysis of Climate, Climate Change and Climate Policy.

Other readings will be made available on Virtuale: some are required while others only recommended. The website will be updated continuously and it is recommended to check it weekly.

Here are three background readings for those with a weak Economics training:
* (Game theory) M. Jackson, Brief Introduction to the Basics of Game Theory (21 pages)
* (Risk & Uncertainty) Nicholson et al. (2008) Intermediate Microeconomics, Uncertainty (11 p)
* (Discounting). Nicholson et al. (2008) Interm. Microecon., Compound Interest (13 pages)

Teaching methods

Lectures with slides presentation

LECTURES WILL TAKE PLACE IN THE SECOND SEMESTER IN THE BOLOGNA CAMPUS

 

 

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 may struggle as 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.You are expected to know the material both in the required readings and in the slides.

Student presentations. You will have the chance to prepare and deliver in class a group presentation on a topic chosen out of a list. The presentation can add 1, 2, or 3 points on top of your written exam grade depending on how well you do. These bonus points will remain valid until January 2026.

If you reject the grade or fail the exam, you cannot take the appello immediately after (salto di appello). The bonus point from the presentation will remain valid if you reject the grade once.

Teaching tools

Slide presentations
Frontal lectures
In-class games

Office hours

See the website of Marco Casari