Being aware of the urgency and importance of climate change is not enough to tackle it effectively. To avoid the worst climate outcomes, decisive action has to be taken. But what realistic options do we have? Since our resources are limited, is it better to act now or wait until we have more advanced and less expensive technology? How big do our abatement efforts have to be?
This MOOC will help you understand how economists try to answer these questions and find the optimal course of action. Most important, it will give you the conceptual tools to draw your own conclusions. In the first part of the MOOC, you will learn about the two main approaches used by economists to determine when and how much we should invest in the fight against climate change. The first method is the net-present-value approach. Here the social discount rate plays a central role in determining optimal policy, by showing how future benefits and costs can be compared and made comparable (‘present-valued’) with expenditures today. In the second approach you will learn how Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) work. In particular, you will study in detail the strengths and weaknesses of one of the most popular IAMs, the DICE model, developed by Nobel laureate Professor Nordhaus. This model tries to figure out the optimal course of action by providing a simplified account of the science, the technology and the economics of the problem. The second part of this MOOC then explores the different types of economic policies that decision-makers can adopt. You will be introduced to different methods used to control emissions, such as carbon taxes, regulations and standard-setting. You will also learn about the most developed emissions trading markets around the world and their effects on the economy. This MOOC is for those who wish to understand the economics of climate change and use this understanding to form their own informed opinion about the policies on which we can rely to tackle it. It is not necessary to have specialized prior knowledge, apart from basic familiarity with economic concepts such as utility functions. We do suggest, however, taking the first MOOC of this specialization before starting this one in order to gain a simple but solid understanding of the physical and technological aspects of the problems.
DH
Very imformitive, and well balanced. Gives you the tools to make your own decisions.
RB
Professor Ricardo was a thorough, earnest, and truly remarkably lucid teacher. Highly recommended.
PH
Great course, but it's a little bit harder than expect for me which don't have a economy background.
JJ
Apparently is the only course that mention carbon markets
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The program is successful and well prepared. However, adding more good practices for different sectors from the world may be better to understand the topics. Thank you.
Professor Ricardo was a thorough, earnest, and truly remarkably lucid teacher. Highly recommended.
Very imformitive, and well balanced. Gives you the tools to make your own decisions.
Apparently is the only course that mention carbon markets
Lack of relevant knowledge, this professional course is very difficult for me. Throughout a long and hard time, I am glad that I had been persisted and completed it.
Great course, but it's a little bit harder than expect for me which don't have a economy background.
Well organized, informative and very educative
Prof. Rebonato keeps being fantastic !
than you
perfect
It is a specialist course about intricacies of climate change economics, models for cost abatement and social discounting and energy policies. It is in-depth ,rigorous and challenging course. I highly recommend it to Economists and Sustainable Finance Professionals.
This course is an overview approaching economic model to try to understand approach on the CO2 and GHG from politic, governmental, tax point of view using some on hands elements. System are complicated if approached through mathematics, becasue of calculation but a multiple systems has to be considered to foreseen a real future scenario. too many variables, externatilities but as baseline rate and social discount to try to explain what to do now or postpone tomorrow. As usual some economic model are contradictory so maybe are trying to explain one scenario and at the end they explain another one, so counter-logical. Anyway a start to go in depth to argue based on economics.
AyudarÃa bastante el doblaje al español de los videos teniendo en cuenta que tiene terminologÃa técnica y por el numero de videos. Por otro lado podrÃa tener una dinámica diferente ya que se torna bastante monótono
Good course. I learned a lot.
However, there is a great emphasis on mathematics. Sometimes that's a bit exaggerated in my opinion .
Week 1 is basic knowledge, explained well.
Weeks 2 and 3 explain how a house of cards is built, but not why it's not a house of cards.
Weeks 4 & 5 are of uneven quality but overal useful because providing valuable links to reliable resources.
Overall I think the course is too superficial. A lot of equations threw there and there is no a real case study. NPV applied to a real case? no etc
The course is too theoretical and I don't think it gives you the base to calculate real investment cases.