FACULTY & STUDENT RESOURCES
Environmental Courses
Harvard Kennedy School
Harvard Kennedy School Course Catalog
API-135 Environmental and Resource Economics and Policy
R. Stavins Spring M, W 1:10-2:30
Offered jointly through FAS as Economics 1661.
API-162 Advanced Environmental and Resource Economics for
International Development
T. Panayotou Spring M, W 2:40-4:00
This is a course in advanced environmental economics as it relates to
international development and public policy. It provides an opportunity for
students to apply the tools of analysis they have learned in their analytical
and quantitative courses to problems of natural resource management,
environmental policy, and sustainable development. It assumes the ability
to use calculus. The course covers topics in social choice; market and
policy failure; property rights and Pigovian taxes; marketable permits
and transferable development rights; optimal resource use over time;
environmental demand theory; and economic valuation methods. The thrust
of the course is on international applications and the integration of resource
use, environmental policy, and economic development.
API-905Y Seminar on Environmental Economics and Policy
R. Stavins, M. Weitzman Fall and Spring W 4:10-5:30
Offered jointly through FAS as Economics 2690hf.
BGP-204M Food Policy and Agribusiness
R. Goldberg Spring M,W 11:40 - 1:00
Deals with public and private management of an industry sector that encompasses half the world’s labor force, half the world’s assets, and 40% of consumer purchases. The public policy issues of economic development, trade, nutrition, food safety, the environment, maintaining limited natural resources, protecting plant and animal diversity, intellectual property, genetics, and social and economic priorities will all be developed in case study format. Positioning public agencies and private firms within the developed and developing economies will be an integral part of the course. Wherever possible, the CEO or leading government official involved will be a guest at the class. Students may do a reading and research report for an additional one-half credit. Grading for the course is based on class participation (65%) and two written analyses of case studies (35%).
HUT-263 - Planning and Environmental Law
B. Blaesser Fall M, W 8:30-10:00
Offered jointly by the Graduate School of Design as GSD-5206.
IGA-104 Managing a Living Planet
W. Clark Spring M, W 2:40-4:00
Concerns for how human well-being can be increased in a world of finite
resources have long been voiced at local and national levels. Increasingly,
however, these concerns have escalated to the global stage. Transnational
migration, disease pandemics, water wars, and climate change are among
the most recent issues that have crowded on to high-level agendas of global
governance that were previously reserved for discussions of collective security
and world trade. Such high-profile concerns, however, are all symptoms of a
more fundamental transformation in which nature and society have become
a single complex adaptive system, increasingly tightly coupled at all scales
from local to global. This course explores those interconnections. It focuses
on analyzing their consequences for efforts to improve human well-being
through sustainable utilization of the planet’s energy, land, water, and biotic
resources. It seeks to understand how global institutions can be designed to
promote such efforts.
IGA-204 Environmental and Resource Science for Policy
J. Holdren Fall T, Th 2:40-4:00
This course equips students to understand and utilize insights from
the natural sciences about resource utilization, human impacts on the
environment, and sustainable development. The first part surveys current
thinking about environmental and resource problems as well as how the
scientific and technological dimensions of these relate to their economic,
political, and management dimensions. It also reviews how environmental
challenges vary by scale and location around the world. The second part
introduces key science-based tools for illuminating environmental and
resource issues, including estimation and comparison of natural and
anthropogenic environmental change; analysis of growth and depletion;
stock/flow modeling; risk assessment; remote sensing/GIS applications;
indicator systems; and the use of scenario techniques. The final part
explores how these approaches can be integrated with social science–based
approaches in the design of effective environmental policies.
IGA-205 Science, Technology, Innovation, and Public Policy
K. Sims Gallagher Fall M, W 11:40-1:00
This course explores how public policy influences science, technology, and
innovation (STI) and, conversely, how scientific and technological knowledge
gets used (or not used) in the formation of public policy. Students will come
away from this course with a fundamental understanding of the institutional
landscape of S&T policy, the instruments of S&T policy implementation,
the processes of S&T policy decision-making, and methodologies for doing
public policy analysis related to science, technology, and innovation. The
landscape is global, with heavier influence on the U.S. context. The course
encompasses government, business, academic institutions, and other NGOs.
IGA-310 Energy Policy: Technologies, Systems, and Markets
J. Holdren, H. Lee Spring T, Th 2:40-4:00
Energy is a critical component of every dimension of human society. It is an
essential input for economic development, transportation, and agriculture,
and it plays an enormous role in environmental problems and solutions, in
national security issues, and in science and technology policy. The course
discusses the technological, economic, and policy dimensions of the energy
choices needed to meet economic and environmental goals in both the near
and long term. Electricity-infrastructure policy, energy-supply and end
use–efficiency options, environmental impacts, and strategic energy policies
will all be covered.
IGA-320 Biotechnology and Sustainability
C. Juma Spring T, Th 11:40-1:00
This course explores the policy implications of applying biological
technologies (defined as the application of biological systems, living
organisms or their derivatives to specific uses) in finding solutions to global
ecological challenges, and aims to examine the role of biotechnology for
sustainable development. It covers the following themes: (1) theoretical
and historical aspects of technology and sustainability; (2) environmental
applications of biotechnology; (3) policy and institutional considerations;
and the dynamics of resistance to new technologies. Training in natural
sciences is not a requirement.
PED-501M - Native Americans in the 21st Century: Nation-Building I
Offered jointly by the Graduate School of Education as A101.
PED-502 - Native Americans in the 21st Century: Nation-Building II
Offered jointly by the Graduate School of Education as A102.
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