This specialization is a good fit for students who want to focus on topics closely related to climate change and policy and at the same time be introduced to economics and social science methods and a broad set of academic skills. The specialization is very closely related to ongoing research projects by Rezai and Zwickl, who will present their own work and give an overview of the state-of-the-art academic literature on different topics, for example distributional effects of carbon pricing or air quality co-benefits of climate mitigation.

The specialization will teach students to conduct literature researches and read simple academic papers, identify research gaps in the literature, develop their own research questions, and apply some of the methods used in the fields of climate economics, policy, and justice for their own research projects. Interested students will get the opportunity to learn more about current research projects by the lecturers, get information on academic online lectures on related topics around the world, write their bachelor theses within these projects, and will be presented with options to continue their studies in Master and PhD programs in Austria and abroad after completing their Bachelor at WU.

• Students will become familiar with the state-of-the art literature in climate economics, policy, and justice

• Students will acquire the ability to conduct academic literature searches and read simple academic papers.

• Students will learn strategies to assess the quality of papers and distinguish credible scientific findings in established journals from those published in predatory journals

• Students will learn to conduct case studies independently and acquire important skills for writing excellent Bachelor theses

• Students will learn to present stylized facts and empirical data in a meaningful way

• Students will learn to set up simple quantitative surveys

Sequencing

Please note that successfully completing Course I is a prerequisite for enrolling in Course IV (but not for Courses II and III). Also, please be aware that Course I and II are typically offered only in the winter semester, while Course III and IV are typically offered only in the summer semester.

Course contents

• Course I - Introduction to Climate Change and Climate Policy

This course provides a foundational understanding of climate science, economics, policy, and justice. Beginning with a review of historical and cutting-edge climate science research, it distinguishes credible scientific evidence from industry-funded attempts to undermine it. The curriculum progresses to cover the physical fundamentals of climate change and essential concepts and methods in climate sciences. The final part of the course introduces students to the specialization's core themes: climate economics, policy, and justice.

• Course II - Climate Policy

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of contemporary issues in climate policy. It first covers different environmental policy options (regulations, taxes, permit schemes, subsidies) in economic theory and practice. Students will learn about success stories of environmental regulation (such as acid rain or ozone layer depletion) and discuss lessons for climate policy. They will also learn about public attitudes towards climate policy and which features made such policies (un)successful. The second part of the course deals with selected state-of-the-art topics in climate policy, such as fossil fuel subsidies or air quality co-benefits. The third part covers climate change adaptation.

• Course III - Climate Economics

This course is an introduction to the economics of climate change. It begins by introducing students to economic approaches to the environment and cover the basic methods used in environmental economics, such as cost-benefit analysis and integrated assessment models. Students will then learn about current topics in climate change economics, such as distributional impacts, financial repercussions, international cooperation, and biodiversity. The course closes by simulating international climate negotiations, with groups of students representing different world regions.

• Course IV - Climate Justice

The final course of the specialization deals with inequality and climate change and gives an overview of the growing research field of climate justice. After an introduction to the causes and consequences of economic, social, and environmental inequality, the course will empirically assess inequality in climate change contributions, inequality in climate change impacts, and distributional effects of climate policies.

Requirement for registration for specializations in Wirtschaft – Umwelt – Politik are at least 20 ECTS from the CBK including the courses „Jahresabschluss und Unternehmensberichte“, „Mathematik“ and „Statistik“

Specializations are chosen by registering via LPIS for the course "Access to Specializations: Climate Change Economics, Policy, and Justice". After you have been assessed with "successfully participated" during the introduction to the specialization, you can select the respective specialization in LPIS and register for the courses.

You can find more information at:

https://www.wu.ac.at/studierende/mein-studium/bachelorguide/sbwl-2-1-1/

Placement ("successfully participated") is done on a first-come-first-in basis and will be at the same time for all specializations. Registrations for more than one specialization are possible. Therefore, it is important to register first for your top choice. If you register for further specializations as second or third choices, it may happen that places in these specializations are first allocated to those who have chosen them as their first choice. You indicate your preferences through the order of registration.