#NA-03-17 Exploring Possible Futures: Modeling in Environmental and Energy Economics
-
- Course level: All Levels
About Course
University of BaselDescription
Make informed decisions about pressing environmental issues.
What will our future look like? Will we continue burning fossil fuels or will we live in a 100% renewable world? How can we address climate change and what policies do we need to implement?
We will provide you with model examples to make you familiar with aspects of economic modeling and state-of-the-art research on current debates in energy policy.
This online course explores these concerns, using models in environmental and energy economics. You will learn how to design models, how to interpret and use results to make informed decisions, and how to use models to assess energy and environmental policies.
What topics will you cover?
- Climate change and energy policies.
- Evidence-based recommendations on current problems of energy policy.
- Models in environmental economics and energy economics.
- Building blocks of models and possible applications.
- Informed decisions by the results of different modeling approaches.
Who will you learn with?
I am professor of environmental economics at the University of Basel and head of the SCCER CREST (http://www.sccer-crest.ch). My research focusses on the design of environmental and energy policy.
I am professor for energy economics at the University of Basel (https://fonew.unibas.ch/). My research focus is on numerical modeling of energy markets.
Who developed the course?
The University of Basel has an international reputation of outstanding achievements in research and teaching.
What Will I Learn?
- Develop and use models in environmental economics and energy economics, covering conceptual aspects, basic design choices, and numerical and computational challenges.
- Discuss topical issues like climate change and energy policies.
- Explore different modeling approaches.
- Investigate in the mathematical formulation underlying models.
- Apply your knowledge to example models and adjust their specifications.
- Interpret and use the results of different modeling approaches to make informed decisions.
- Investigate potential future energy scenarios.
- Reflect on the role of economic models for policy evaluations.
- Discuss the role of modeling in economic decision making.
Topics for this course
Welcome to ‘Exploring Possible Futures’
Why do we need economic models?00:03:15
What are economic models?00:06:16
What do scientists think about economic modeling?
Reflect and discuss
Course outline and requirements
Supply options
I was impressed by two parts of the course, one on climate change and energy policy, and the other on evidence-based advice on current energy policy issues. These are two good parts.
In this course, I learned how to design models, how to interpret and use the results to make informed decisions, and how to use models to evaluate energy and environmental policies. It was very rewarding.
The course provides good model examples to familiarize me with various aspects of economic modelling and the latest research in the current energy policy debate. It's not very difficult, it's very easy to understand.
This is a course on the future of energy. What will our future look like, given the amount of energy we consume today? The course offers many ideas. Let me reflect deeply on how we should respond to climate change and what policies need to be implemented. A very educational course.
Material Includes
- Official Certificate
Tags
Target Audience
- This course is intended for anyone interested in the topics of environmental economics and energy economics, including students at MSc or advanced BA level and policy makers.
- To gain the most from this course, we encourage you to examine the details of the provided model examples, which require some basic knowledge in mathematics and microeconomics.