First dive in the Environmental Economics World
“How to quantify the impact of a unit of CO2 emission on Society?”
“What is the optimal amount of emission reduction that corporations should target?”
“How can our planet thrive without sacrificing future generations’ consumption?”
These were only a few of the cotemporary dilemmas which Professor Johan Eyckmans[1] addressed throughout his visit at the Department of Economic Sciences of The Higher School of Economics.
Johan Eyckmans is a professor at KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics in Brussels, specialized in the sphere of Industrial and Environmental Economics. This latter, is a modern branch of economics which combines physics, chemistry and biology, with the ultimate goal of identifying the optimal allocation of environmental resources.
As reported by the Global Footprint Network[2], on August 8, 2016, Humans started to use more natural resources, than the planet heart can renew in a year. More precisely, in the last six years we exhausted the yearly supply of resources in only eight months and kept living at expenses of future generations for the next four. As at 2017, The World Economic Forum’s Risk report[3] lists Global Warming as one of the most important issues that society should address for preserving biodiversity, and avoid ecosystem collapse. In this context of natural disasters and commodity crises, environmental economics modeling is expected to become a precious marketable skill especially in resources based countries such as the Russian Federation.
The intensive introductory course offered by Professor Eyckmans, effectively combined theoretical knowledge with practical interactive activities. Throughout the lectures, in fact, students had the opportunity to personify a corporate sustainability manager and take part in an emission trading simulation game. Finally, the course will continue with seminars conducted by the HSE alumna, currently KU Leuven graduate student Irina Bakalova, where students will be required to implement models covered in the lecture on computer.
For students who missed the course, but still would like to acquire some knowledge on the multidisciplinary science of environmental economics, The textbook “Natural Resource and Environmental Economics” by R Perman., Y Ma., J McGilvray and M Common is highly recommended[4].
A Special Thanks to KU Leuven for this valuable initiative. We look forward for further collaborations on this field between the Faculty of Economic Sciences and KU Leuven
[1] http://feb.kuleuven.be/johan.eyckmans
[2] http://www.overshootday.org/
[3] http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2017/global-risks-landscape2017
Edoardo ALBERTI
First Year MSc SCF