Insegnamento a.a. 2025-2026

30648 - ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND POLICY

Department of Social and Political Sciences

Course taught in English

Go to class group/s: 31

BAI (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/06) - BEMACS (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/06) - BESS-CLES (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/06) - BGL (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/06) - BIEF (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/06) - BIEM (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/06) - BIG (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/06) - CLEACC (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/06) - CLEAM (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/06) - CLEF (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/06) - WBB (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/06)

Course Director:
FRANCESCO GULLI'

Classes: 31 (II sem.)

Instructors:
Class 31: FRANCESCO GULLI'

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

The European Union explicitly states that “since economics is about to deal with scarce resources, it can often be useful when tackling environmental problems”. This statement comes from a precise observation. The ability of the natural environment to dispose the waste of anthropogenic activities (keeping unchanged degree of regeneration) is not infinite (downstream “scarcity”). This kind of “scarcity” justifies to use the tools of the economic theory to face environmental problems. In this regard, two circumstances should be adequately emphasised. Firstly, today the most important (at least perceived) environmental problem is climate change due to the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide. Secondly, more than 80% of carbon emissions are due to energy production and consumption. As a consequence, fighting climate change requires to adequately study the interaction between energy and environmental issues with the aim to understand how to mitigate global warming through (but not only) the decarbonisation of energy supply. The analysis of this interaction is the principal mission of this course.

CONTENT SUMMARY

The course is divided into three parts.

1. The first part focuses on the concept of sustainability distinguishing between environmental economics and ecological economics. The different typologies of sustainability will be described together with the concept of ecological footprint. In addition, great attention will be payed to how the economic theory can help policymakers to design environmental policies.

2. The second part introduces the main energy markets (crude oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear power and renewable energy). Great attention is dedicated to the perspectives of deployment of Renewable Energy Sources (RES), their competitiveness and the possible supporting mechanisms (quantity, pricing and hybrid supporting mechanisms).

3. The third part analyzes policies and instruments to reduce or internalize environmental externalities at different scales. The main global frameworks for global sustainability, starting from the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, will be considered with a focus on their implementation. The UN Conventions on Climate Change and on Biodiversity constitute the framework for climate adaptation and mitigation and for biodiversity and nature protection. Instruments to mitigate emissions, enhance resilience and safeguard ecosystems will be assessed. Global and national-scale policies will be analyzed and a focus on subnational policies will also be considered. General theory will be supported by analysis of specific policies and instruments.

Class 1. Introduction: economic theory, energy and environment (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 2. Carrying capacity, ecological footprint and human development index (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 3. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 4. From theory to policy: environmental taxation (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 5. From theory to policy: emissions trading (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 6. Climate change and energy supply (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 7. Energy markets and prices: crude oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear power; renewable energy (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 8. Renewable technologies (hydropower, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, marine): basic technical issues (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 9. Electricity market and RES competitiveness: market parity (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 10. Supporting policy of RES deployment: feed-in and quantity mechanisms; hybrid mechanisms (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 11. Electricity market and RES competitiveness: grid parity and supply parity (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 12. In class group assignment (Instructor: Gullì; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 13. Environmental externalities and policy instruments for their mitigation and internalization (Instructor: Croci; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 14. The Agenda 2030 for sustainable development (Instructor: Croci; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 15. Mitigation policies under the Paris Agreement (Instructor: Croci; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 16. Carbon pricing: schemes and rules (Instructor: Croci; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 17. Climate adaptation policies (Instructor: Croci; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 18. Nature and biodiversity protection - ecosystem services (Instructor: Croci; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Class 19. Urban sustainability (Instructor: Croci; lecture notes provided by the instructor)

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

undesrtanding how ecomimic theory can help policymakers to to design environmental and energy policy
verifying how the current policies can promote the deployment of renewable technologies
understanding how environmental policies can promote the safeguard of the natural environment
checking the impact of environmental policies on the economic activity

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

how to design environmental taxation
how to design an emissions trading scheme
how to assess the different schemes of RES subsdies
analyse the connection between environmental and energy issues

Teaching methods

Lectures
Collaborative Works / Assignments

DETAILS

face-to-face lectures
Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
Group assignments

Assessment methods

	Continuous assessment	Partial exams	General exam
Written individual exam (traditional/online)			x
Collaborative Works / Assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)	x

ATTENDING STUDENTS

Written exam plus in class collaborative group assignment

Written exam: 80%

Assignment: 20%

NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

Only written exam

Weight: 100%

Teaching materials

ATTENDING STUDENTS

Lecture notes provided by the instructors

Additional readings uploaded to Blackboard lesson by lesson

Damian M. and De Paoli L. (2017), Climate change: Back to development, Economics and Policy of Energy and the Environment, 3

Integrative:

Pearce D. K. and Turner R. K., 1990, Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment, The Joan Hopkins University Press