Environmental Economics (MASTER)

- To develop knowledge of sustainable development and economic dimensions of environment protection.

- To develop an understanding of the environmental policy in the context of economic systems, economic development, environmental policy, environmental accounting, and environmental management.

- Note the relations between economic solutions to the environmental problems at the level of state, region, and enterprise.

1. Environment and economics. Open and closed (linear) systems. Non-linear complex systems and closures.

2. Environment and ethics.
Environmental justice. Social responsibility.

3. Environment and society. Limits to growth. Sustainable development. Weak and strong sustainability.

4. Market mechanism and environmental problems. Market failures. Externalities and public/common goods. Property rights.

5. Evaluation of the environment and natural resources. Valuation techniques. CBA analysis. Dealing with uncertainty.

6. The economics of pollution control (green taxes, tradable permits, environmental standards). Double dividend. Environmental policy costs. Limitations of government and environmental policy.

7. Ecological economics and environmental accounting. Environmental investment assessment. Environmental reports. Greening the national accounts. Modeling eco-economics systems.

8. Natural resource economics. Resource scarcity. Nonrenewable resources (gas, oil, coal). Renewable resources (forests, fisheries). Recycling (minerals, paper, glass). Ecosystems management (forest and water system).

9. Concept of the circular economy, institutional EU framework, new natural resource economics and industrialization 4.0 and 5.0.

10. World trade and the environment. Sustainable trade. Global climate change and biodiversity loss. Sustainable development
challenges in China, India and Brazil.

11. Environmental systems and firms. Environmental management. Corporate social responsibility. Environment as a market opportunity.

12. Ecology in Slovenia and EU. Environmental protection at the global level (UN and SDG's,
conventions….).

13. New eco-principles of economics and alternatives.