B018922 - ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND EUROPEAN SECURITY

Inglese

The course aims at presenting a comprehensive analysis of the issues of energy, environment and European policy from a strong multidisciplinary perspective, as this new course encompasses three different disciplines (energy economics, environmental economics and history of international relations).

Course materials and reading lists will be available at the beginning of the second semester.

Identify and discuss the main historical developments in international relations between energy producer and importer countries. Explain and apply the key concepts and model of energy and environmental economics. Examine the European Energy and Environmental policies.

Lectures and seminars. Teachers and scholars from other Italian and/or foreign universities, such as Russian and Turkish, will be invited to give lectures on specific topics, relevant for the course.

This course is financed by the Lifelong Learning Programme - Jean Monnet Module.

Essay exam

The course is divided into three modules.
First module:

- A broad historical appraisal (1850-2010): from steam to oil. Changes in the global energy consumption patterns)
- Oil as a new gold rush: the United States, Russia and the Middle East, 1890-1945
- An increasing energy dependency for Europe (1945-1974)
- Oil crisis in the Seventies: inflation, welfare state and less developed countries debt.
- A first European response: diversification of sources and suppliers, nuclear power generation
- European dependency on non-member countries supply: how much this affects EU external relations?

Second module:
- Energy sector characteristics
- Basic economics of energy production/supply
- Energy demand: models for households and firms
- Markets, infrastructures prices and regulation in Europe
- Energy markets in international arena: oil and gas as a case-study
- The European Policy: completing the single market (liberalization, authorities and prices)
- The new European strategy: Energy 2020

The third module:

- The environmental approach (the tragedy of commons; renewable and non renewable resources, resources and sustainability definition)
- External cost of different energy sources: health and climate change issues
- Renewable resources: markets and potentiality
- Environmental policy instruments to promote energy efficiency: taxation, ETS, feed-in tariffs and subsidies