2012 ConferenceThe Green Economics Institute Annual Conference will take place 19th- 22nd July 2012 at Mansfield College, Oxford.
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Recommendations from one of our students on Environmental Economics & Policy Masters course
For me, choosing which subjects I want to study has never been an easy thing. The offerings have always put me in the difficult position of trading off the different things I want to know more about. With my interests lying in the energy sector, and how government policy is affecting the diffusion and diversification of renewable energy technologies in the UK, choosing to study Environmental Economics & Policy in the second year of my MSc in Innovation Management and Technology Policy at Birkbeck College seemed a sensible option. I wanted to learn more about the economic mechanisms which support the world wide transition towards a low-carbon economy so that when my research is completed, it will make a contribution towards this transition.
Having previously sat an economics course where I couldn't cope with the algebra, I was concerned that I would flounder, and that the material would once again pass me by. So, imagine my delight when I was told that the mathematical rigour of the mainstream was seen by more progressive economists as being based upon unsubstantiated assumptions about a theoretical, and for all intents and purposes, non-existent world. Move one step further to the joy I felt when I was told that inference from reality, rather than from abstract formulae, models and graphs, was not only perfectly acceptable, but absolutely necessary if humanity is to truly make progress in addressing the damage that we have caused to the planet in the past.
A reintroduction into economics by Miriam Kennet through the Environmental Economics & Policy lectures has ignited a deep interest in a subject which I once considered beyond me, and the course has been the most enjoyable of all those which I have sat in my six years as a part-time student at Birkbeck. The materials presented have been challenging, as one would expect from a masters level course, but in addition to this, have also been at the cutting edge of what it means to be an economist in the 21st century. The small size of the class, just ten of us, was perfect for opinions to be aired and debated, and the varied backgrounds of the students, some of whom were entirely new to economics, provided novel takes on what some of us considered to be questions whose answers had long since been agreed by the academic community.
We were also privileged to have two guest speakers as part of the course. Bogusia Igielska's lecture introduced environmental policy instruments for climate change mitigation. Being relatively new to my full-time position as a Business Analyst on a carbon-related contract, this was a fantastic opportunity to find out more about how countries are acting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The case studies on Germany and Poland also introduced the international element, providing the opportunity to contrast policy measures instituted in the UK. For our final lecture, Dr Jeffrey Turk arrived fresh from Brussels on the Eurostar, to deliver the most concise explanation I have heard of why the 'scientific rigour' of mainstream economics is an illusion. As someone who originally began their degree studies in Chemistry before a change of head lead me into the social sciences, and with Dr Turk's first doctorate was in particle physics, I was intrigued by the comparisons which were drawn with the methodology used experimental studies into the lifetime of elementary particles, and the pseudo-methodology of 'empirical' economics.
Birkbeck has always been at the forefront of the social sciences and the course continued this tradition. This small group of students has perhaps been one of the most privileged in the history of the course to have Miriam Kennet, the co-founder of a new and radical economic paradigm which is shaking the very foundations of the mainstream, as our lecturer. I know that I do not stand alone as one whose interest in this subject has grown week-by-week, as foundations turned into a way of providing critique on many of the activities our respective companies conduct on a daily basis. I'm sure that we would all agree that Miriam's foray, starting with a critique of the mainstream, and moving through environmental and economical economics to an end point of green economics whilst different to the course of previous years, created an enlightening path for the course to follow.
In an effort to ensure that carbon emissions from electricity generation do not increase more than is necessary in the coming decades, the British government wishes to embark on a second generation of nuclear power. Instinctively I am against this on environmental grounds; nuclear waste is a pollutant which cannot be adequately processed and geological storage simply puts off the problems of today for tomorrow. We are told that should the build programme proceed, they will be funded entirely by private enterprise, and these companies would not go about investing in projects which they deemed to have poor economic value. Has a deeper question been missed however? Can we truly project cash figures for infrastructure and waste whose long-term value is in fact inestimable, and will private companies be able to afford a second generation legacy where the UK government cannot afford the first? I hope that further studies, spurred by this brief course, will help me to determine an answer.
June 2008
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