Current courses

The Policy Process: Multi-Level Climate Governance offers an introduction to key concepts and practices in public policy making and governance. It provides a broad overview of climate and energy policy by drawing extensively on practical examples from these fields. 

This course is offered as an MPP core course. 

Advanced climate policy provides a comprehensive overview and opportunity to engage with important details of the emerging field of climate policy. The European Union’s Green Deal and Germany serve as main case studies. 

This course is offered as an elective for MIA and MPP students. 

Econ II: Economic Growth & Climate Change studies the long-term consequences of economic growth and climate change through the lens of welfare economics. Equipped with insights from the major models of economic growth (Solow, Ramsey, Romer) and the empirical literature, we discuss if in a world of climate change, sustained economic growth is feasible – and desirable.

Prerequisites: Economics I 

This course is a core course for 1st year MIA and MPP students only. 

The electricity industry is undergoing the deepest transformation of its history, driven by decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitalisation: New technologies from solar photovoltaics to batteries and the Internet of things reshape how electricity is produced, transported, traded and consumed. Wind and solar energy are at the center of change. Understanding this revolution requires understanding the deep links between electricity systems and technologies, economics and markets, as well as regulation and policy. Good energy policy requires a sound understanding of the fundamental physics and economics as well as the institutional and legal framework that shape power systems and markets. The goal of this course is to equip students with this knowledge. The focus of this class is on economics and markets; to a lesser degree it covers technology.

The centerpiece of this class is the economics of wind and solar energy. After a crash course in power plant technology and electricity systems engineering, we will discuss the drivers of cost of electricity, with a particular focus on renewable energy and the cost revolution that has made wind and solar energy cost-competitive with fossil fuels. We will then develop tools to assess the economic value of electricity, based on a rigorous assessment of electricity markets. Students will learn methods to derive an optimal long-term electricity generation mix and to evaluate the economics of wind and solar energy. A particular focus will be the “market value” of wind and solar energy (average revenue). We will see why the value of renewable electricity drops as its share in total electricity supply increases and discuss the (unsettling) implications of this outcome for the long-term economics of renewables and learn what can be done to mitigate the value drop. Apart from the economics of electricity generation, the course will discuss the fundamental principles of electricity grids and options to integrate renewable energy into existing power systems (electricity storage, network expansion, flexible power plants), with a particular focus on batteries and the rise of “prosumers”. We will also discuss the regulation of network operators and the design of retail tariffs, examining the incentives implied in tariff design choices. These are the relevant issues not only in Germany’s Energiewende, but also in upcoming EU legislation and a number of emerging economies.

Emissions pricing represents a unique policy instrument to reduce greenhouse gases in the face of anthropogenic climate change. Instead of direct interventions like technological development on the efficiency side, emissions pricing aims to shifts costs of the overuse of global commons, like air and water, from the consumer back to the polluter - yet, not without controversies. This class will equip students with a solid theoretical basis to understand the emergence, function and the meaning of emission pricing, including the political economy of emission pricing and welfare-theoretical aspects as well as the technology push- and pull-effects, logics of negotiations and ethical foundations. In this course, theory meets practice when discussing several emissions pricing cases to prepare students to quickly understand ongoing debates and controversies as well as engage practically in this policy field. 

This course is offered as an elective for 2nd year MIA and MPP students only. 

The questions of how and what we eat has become a key topic for public debate. The issue of food manifests itself in different forms that are often vehicles for new understandings of the self, the nation, the environment and/ or the planet; just take the rise of consumer and farmer movements that oppose modern industrialised food production and worry about the future of agricultural sustainability or the growing focus on food and cuisine in the media and other culture industries.

Drawing on a number of disciplines, this course places food production, distribution and consumption at the centre of scrutiny. Like many other areas of life, it takes the world of food to be a world of politics and power—a world in which policy-makers, economists, environmentalists, agribusinesses, scientists, consumers, and social justice groups, all holding vastly different views, seek to influence the food system and related policies. Hence, the world of food and the way our food systems work and worked offers important insights into the interplay of power, politics and identity—including relations between developing and developed countries, between genders as well as people and the natural world.

It is through the lense of food that this course will hence explore some of the major global challenges of our time, like: food, self and identity; food and cultural heritage; food and migration; food and the nation; food, the media and popular culture; the political economy of human-environment relations; food and the consumer society; food poverty and the politics of food waste; state policy and the healthy body politic; food and the 'moral economy'; the future of food production and consumption.

This course is for 2nd year MIA, MPP and MDS students only.

This course introduces students to concepts and issues in the study of global environmental politics (GEP) placing some emphasis on the political economy of environmental protection. The course begins by outlining perspectives on why (global) environmental problems arise, and how and under what conditions they can be solved. It then explores processes of international environmental governance: problem identification/policy formulation, designing and negotiating multilateral environmental regimes and implementing and enforcing international environmental law and policy. Illustrations from the politics of climate change, ozone depletion, air pollution, whaling, hazardous wastes, mercury politics, deforestation and biodiversity will be used to further the understanding of these processes. We will ask questions such as: What factors help countries negotiate treaties to solve problems? What types of rules work best? What role do non-state actors play? How can we evaluate whether a treaty has been effective or successful? What are the obstacles to effective environmental agreements?

We then turn to recent issues and debates in global environmental politics by analysing examples of non-state global environmental governance, assessing the contentious link between international trade and environmental degradation, exploring the interrelationship between economic development and environmental quality and examining the link between environmental change, violent conflict and human security.

This course is for 2nd year MIA, MPP and MDS students only.

To achieve net-zero emission targets announced by numerous countries, a transformation of mobility is required. The transport sector is characterised by complex interaction of market frictions for the development and deployment of novel technologies, the lock-in generated by existing transport infrastructures and behavioural barriers to change mobility patterns. This makes it challenging to design effective policies to decarbonise transportation.

The course aims to familiarise students with the main technological, economic, and political challenges of decarbonising transportation. The focus of the class will lie on policy options, in particular the instruments available to policy makers and their interaction. Lectures will mostly focus on recent developments in the EU and Germany. Examples will be drawn from academic contributions based on theoretical and numerical approaches and will be presented in a way that is accessible to all students, without requiring knowledge of specific methodologies or mathematical details. All modes of transport will be covered, with a focus on road transport.

Throughout the semester, students will be asked to transfer their insights to selected countries to identify the most important challenges and opportunities to decarbonise transport and to assess policy options that could foster such a mobility transition.

This course is for 2nd year MIA, MPP, and MDS students only.

This course explores the opportunities and challenges associated with countries’ mineral wealth and extractive industries. Mineral resources are a large part of our everyday life - the spoon we use, the phone we hold, the tooth that gets filled - but go unnoticed by most of their users and ignored in public debate, unless a major disaster happens. Yet, our societal choices – in terms of policies and management practices – matter profoundly for mining countries’ economic, social and environmental health, as well as in terms of peace, integrity, and institutional stability. As the world is embarking on massive climate-change driven transitions, the mineral intensity of most clean energy technologies has brought renewed attention to the “treasure and trouble” associated with the extractive industries and their related facilities. Students will take a journey through the A-Z of what policymakers and industry can do – and need to be mindful of – in creating policy options and shaping management approaches for building economic, social, and environmental wealth based on – and perhaps despite – the mineral resources they own and work with.

Throughout the course, students will get to explore and understand the context and rationale for the often-different paths taken by countries and corporates. Using practical examples from around the world, across the 70+ mining countries, the course will cover 12 main topics associated with Mineral Wealth and Extractive Industries: (1) Economic Development, Poverty Reduction, and Revenue Management; (2) Shared Value and Local Social Development and Alliances; (3) Water; (4) Energy; (5) Integrity and Corruption; (6) Labor Relations and Human Rights; (7) Gender Dimensions in Mining Policies and Management Approaches; (8) Mining Companies and their Organizational Challenges; (9) Small-Scale Mining; (10) Mine Closure and Industrial Re-Structuring; (11) ESG Principles and Standards across Countries and Industry Players; and (12) Accountability and Complaints Mechanisms.  The course will include in-person discussions with a senior manager who has for many years led the World Bank’s Mining Practice and with a senior manager from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) who oversees the evaluation of GEF funded programs including, amongst other things, some that are designed to lessen the negative impact of mining in terms of human and environmental health.

This course is for 2nd year MIA, MPP and MDS students only.

This course is for 2nd year MIA, MPP and MDS students only.

This course is for 2nd year MIA, MPP and MDS students only.

This course is for 2nd year MIA, MPP and MDS students only.

This course offers an in-depth examination of  the relationship between the climate crisis and human rights. The course will cover why and how the climate crisis is a prominent human rights issue globally and will offer tools to critically evaluate the mutual supportiveness and possible tensions between human rights and climate action.

The course has two parts: Part I explores the theoretical and historical discussions on the interrelationship between climate change and human rights (law). It includes a brief overview of the history of the development of human rights norms and institutions, the science and politics of climate change, the different interpretations of what climate justice entails, the differentiated impacts of the climate crisis on human rights, the impacts of climate response measures on human rights, and the interface between the just transition to a low carbon society and human rights.

Part II focuses on how institutions and actors engage with human rights and climate crisis interface. It includes the evolution of the inclusion of human rights in the international climate regime as well as the inclusion of climate change in the international human rights regime, climate litigation and human rights, social and legal mobilisation for climate action through human rights, corporate climate accountability and human rights, and the situation of environmental defenders.

This course is for 2nd year MIA, MPP and MDS students only.

This course looks at how the European Union is working to implement a “fast and fair” transition to a green economy at home and worldwide. Students will learn about how the EU functions, how different countries and economic and social interest groups can influence its priorities and its decisions and about how to build a career in Brussels as a policymaker, a politician, or a public affairs lobbyist.

This course is for 1st year MPP students only.