ECN372 Climate Economics

The course consists of two main parts:

I) THE GLOBAL CLIMATE REGIME AND CLIMATE NEGOTIATIONS. Here we discuss how to deal with the climate change problem from a global perspective, incl. factors affecting the global climate negotiations and agreements such as the Paris agreement. Topics include: 1. Economic costs of climate change - how to value future damage costs, and how to balance these against the costs of reducing emissions? 2. Main principles for the global climate regime, and distribution of mitigation efforts between countries; and 3. Climate negotiations and agreements - what does economic theory tell us, and what is actually happening in the negotiations?

II) NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE POLICIES. Here we discuss different policies to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases including: 1. Policies to reduce emissions in Norway and the EU; 2. Climate and technology policies; 3. Carbon leakage from national climate policies; and 4. Policies for implementing Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) in developing countries.

The students should:

• Apply environmental economic theory on the climate change problem, including explaining what is optimal reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from a global perspective, and which factors that are important in this respect.
• Apply game theory to explain what drives countries' positions in the climate negotiations, and what kind of climate agreements one may expect based on economic theory.
• Identify, analyse and understand the effects of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including the effect on emissions, costs, technological progress, and carbon leakage.
• Identify, analyse and understand driving forces behind deforestation in developing countries, and how policies might be used to reduce deforestation.
• Have knowledge about the international climate regime and climate policies, and insight to assess the effects of proposed climate policies.
• Work both independently and in pairs in preparing written reports, making oral presentation and taking part in scientific discussions.