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Curriculum Environmental Economics

Environmental Economics

How economics explains environmental problems - and the tools used to price and fix them.

  1. Externalities and the Environment Why markets systematically get environmental costs wrong, and the economic concept that explains it. 📄 Read-aloud
  2. The Tragedy of the Commons Why shared resources with no owner tend to get overused, and the main strategies economists use to prevent it. 📄 Read-aloud
  3. Carbon Pricing: Taxes and Cap-and-Trade The two main tools economists use to put a real price on carbon emissions, and how each one works. 📄 Read-aloud
  4. Environmental Economics: Checkpoint 1 Covers externalities, the tragedy of the commons, and carbon pricing tools. 5 questions
  5. The Economics of Renewable Energy Why renewable energy costs have fallen so sharply, and the specific economic challenges that remain. 📄 Read-aloud
  6. Sustainable Development How economists think about balancing growth today against resources for the future, and why the two aren't always in conflict. 📄 Read-aloud
  7. Green Investing How environmental considerations show up in investing decisions, and what to actually check behind the label. 📄 Read-aloud
  8. Environmental Economics: Checkpoint 2 Covers renewable energy economics, sustainable development, and green investing. 5 questions
  9. ESG Investing Explained What it means to invest based on environmental, social and governance factors, and the genuine debate over whether it works as intended. 📄 Read-aloud
  10. Natural Resource Scarcity and Economics How economists think about running out of finite resources - and why prices, not just physical supply, drive the story. 📄 Read-aloud
  11. The Economics of Water Scarcity Why water is priced so differently from other resources, and what happens when supply can't meet demand. 📄 Read-aloud
  12. The Circular Economy and the Economics of Recycling Why recycling only works economically under certain conditions, and what a circular economy tries to fix. 📄 Read-aloud
  13. The Social Cost of Carbon How economists try to put a dollar figure on the damage caused by a single ton of carbon emissions. 📄 Read-aloud
  14. The Economics of Deforestation and Land Use Why forests keep getting cleared even when their long-term value may exceed what clearing them earns. 📄 Read-aloud
  15. Environmental Justice and Who Bears Pollution's Costs Why pollution's economic burden falls disproportionately on certain communities, and what that means for policy. 📄 Read-aloud
  16. The Economics of Plastic Pollution Why plastic is so cheap to produce and so expensive to clean up, and how policy tries to close that gap. 📄 Read-aloud
  17. Climate Migration and Economic Disruption How climate change is beginning to displace people economically, and the costs that ripple through both origin and destination areas. 📄 Read-aloud
  18. Biodiversity Loss and Its Economic Costs Why the disappearance of species and ecosystems carries real economic costs, not just environmental ones. 📄 Read-aloud
  19. The Economic Cost of Air Pollution How air pollution harms health, productivity and the economy, especially in India, and what policies can reduce it. 📄 Read-aloud
  20. The Economics of Climate Adaptation Why adapting to climate change is necessary alongside cutting emissions, which adaptations pay off best, and who pays for them. 📄 Read-aloud
  21. Emissions Trading in Practice: The EU ETS How the European Union's carbon market works, what went wrong in its early years, and how it has reduced emissions. 📄 Read-aloud
  22. Paying for Nature: Payments for Ecosystem Services How paying landowners to protect forests, watersheds and wildlife turns nature's hidden services into income, with examples from Costa Rica and Uganda. 📄 Read-aloud

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