Postgraduate Course: Carbon Economics (online) (PGGE11219)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course translates the highly popular and successful existing course 'Carbon Economics' for online provision. It covers the economics of climate change using the delivery approach and format already used for the successful online course 'Climate Change Impacts & Adaptation' as part of the Global Challenges MSc. |
| Course description |
This course examines the key issues of climate economics, and the tools that economists use to enhance understanding of these issues. It starts with an introductory overview of markets, considering how a well - functioning market mechanism can allocate resources efficiently. It then turns to a consideration of market failures, viewing an thropogenic climate change as a global externality, and the pros and cons of various policy instruments (e.g. carbon taxation and cap & trade) aimed at addressing this market failure and mitigating climate change. Attention then turns to the global dimension, exploring how game theoretic analysis can help to give insights into the difficulties of reaching effective global agreement on climate change mitigation. The course then explores the time dimension considering, inter alia, time discounting and the controversies surrounding the appropriate discount rate to use in the context of climate change, and the widely, but often loosely, used concept of sustainability. The course concludes by considering how irreversibility and uncertainty affect decisions about the timing and nature of investment in climate change mitigation.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Use economic models, tools and theories relevant to carbon management
- Understand discount rates
- Understand the pros and cons of the 2006 Stern review
- Understand the costs and benefits of climate change mitigation
- Understand the pros and cons of carbon taxes and cap & trade
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Learning Resources
Nicholas Stern (2006) 'The Economics of Climate Change: Executive Summary' http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/ExecutiveSummary.pdf
IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, Contributions to Working Group III (2014) Summary for Policy Makers
http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg3/
Dieter Helm (2008) 'Climate change policy - why has so little been achieved?' In Oxford Review of Economic Policy Volume 24 Issue 2 on "Climate Change".
http://www.dieterhelm.co.uk/sites/default/files/Why_so_little_08.pdf |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The course deepens and develops the numerical skills, analytical skills and skills of synthesis and presentation. |
| Keywords | Carbon Economics,Cap & Trade,Carbon Tax,Game Theory,Market Failure,Resource Efficiency,Global |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr David Reay
Tel: (0131 6)50 7722
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Alice Heatley
Tel: (0131 6)50 4866
Email: |
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