Climate Policy and Markets: Navigating Transition in a Divided Landscape

Catalog description

Here's our current climate conundrum: The climate crisis is the single biggest challenge facing the planet, yet the world is struggling to both regulate and incentivize the global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This challenge has intensified as political polarization creates a stark divide in climate governance, yet in many ways the momentum of the energy transition and climate innovation has not slowed. This course offers an in-depth look at how diverse levers, from carbon markets to legislative and regulatory mandates to grassroots movements, are accelerating the adoption of climate solutions - amid significant national political headwinds. The course begins with the origins of international carbon targets in the Kyoto and Paris Agreements. We explore how both regulated and voluntary carbon markets offer carbon pricing as a means of offsetting risk and meeting net zero goals. Major international compliance systems, beginning with the European Union Emissions Trading System, California's market, China's national ETS and new trade policies such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms are helping to establish a global carbon price. We also study voluntary carbon markets as they finance technological advancement and provide capital flows to those on the front line of climate adaptation. A second major focus is how climate movements have fundamentally shaped policy landscapes and market dynamics. We analyze the evolution from early environmental activism to today's diverse climate movement ecosystem, including youth-led movements, indigenous rights advocacy, environmental justice organizations, and climate litigation strategies. The course examines the role of climate activism in shaping international negotiations, and how grassroots movements pressure both governments and corporations to accelerate climate action. Case studies include the global fossil fuel…