Course Detail

Climate change may be today’s most serious challenge to the future well being of our planet. The extent of the environmental and economic impact from climate change is uncertain; however, the recent scientific evidence is increasingly worrisome, suggesting that the world’s businesses and governments may have to take aggressive and coordinated steps in order to avert a catastrophe.

Combating climate change will require a radical reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), in deforestation, and in overall energy use. Transforming the global economy to a low emissions economy will require a broad array of financial tools and techniques that will have far-reaching implications for corporate balance sheets, investment and operations decisions and strategic management.

Carbon finance - which refers to investments in GHG emission reduction companies and projects, and the creation of financial instruments that effectively put a price on carbon emissions - is more relevant today than ever before. Domestically, U.S. President Barack Obama has proposed a national cap-and-trade scheme that could be operational by 2012; internationally, countries around the world are observing the progress of the EU’s emissions trading scheme and debating the relative merits of cap-and-trade versus carbon taxes as they prepare to negotiate the successor to the Kyoto Protocol at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December.

This course will explore the science of climate change and its related economic and environmental impacts, and carefully examine the financial tools and techniques that can be applied to combat climate change in the context of evolving global policy. Specific areas to be covered include the use of capital markets to create market-based emissions trading systems, venture capital to develop low emissions technologies, project finance to build clean energy projects, and corporate finance to manage businesses impacted by climate change and ultimately, related regulatory changes.