PUBPOL 3015

Climate Economics and Policy

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

Climate change is an urgent, multi-generational, global challenge. Public policy at the local, state, national and international level plays an important role in determining our emissions trajectory, the magnitude and location of investments in adaptation and resilience, and even whether climate engineering approaches are allowable and feasible. Thus, policy choices have a large influence on the ultimate damages from climate change and on the cost of addressing them. This course applies the tools of economics to the analysis of the climate challenge and climate policy. We will start with an introduction to the multiple market failures relevant to climate change, an overview of the climate policy portfolio, and a history of international climate negotiations. In part 2 of the course, we’ll learn how economists quantify the damages from climate change and consider the role of benefit-cost analysis designing climate policy. Part 3 will cover net greenhouse gas emissions reduction opportunities, including sectoral approaches and nature-based solutions. In part 4, we’ll study the economics of pollution control and learn what theory and empirical evidence imply for climate change policy instrument choice. We will finish the course focusing on the economics of climate adaptation and resilience (part 5), the distributional implications of climate change and climate policy (part 6), and the future potential for climate engineering (part 7).

Distribution Requirements (SBA-HE)

Last 3 terms offered (None)

Learning Outcomes REF-FA25

• Understand climate change as a problem of multiple market failures, and the institutional frameworks in which climate change policy seeks to address those failures.
• Think critically and comprehensively about the economic benefits and costs of climate change policy, and engage constructively in debates regarding such estimates.
• Assess GHG emissions reduction opportunities and their costs in multiple sectors.
• Analyze the pros and cons of a suite of policy approaches to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and climate engineering.
• Describe the potential for economies to adapt to the changing climate and the role of policy in mediating adaptation.

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