Economic Policy for Sustainable Energy

Why do markets create environmental problems? Can markets be harnessed to solve environmental problems? What should governments do to speed up the energy transition and fight the global climate crisis? The course suggests ways of thinking about these questions. It introduces students with little background in economics to the key concepts, theories, and methods of energy and environmental economics: theories of consumption and production, efficiency and welfare, public goods and common pool resources, the theory of environmental policy targets and instruments, rebound effects, and integrated assessment models.