Dr Marion Dumas

This course is available on the Double Master of Public Administration (LSE-Columbia), Double Master of Public Administration (LSE-Sciences Po), Double Master of Public Administration (LSE-University of Toronto), Master of Public Administration, Master of Public Policy, MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Hertie), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and NUS), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Tokyo) and MPA in Data Science for Public Policy. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

Priority given to School of Public Policy students, students from other programmes will be considered if places remain. Students from outside of the School of Public Policy should submit a statement in support of their request.

Deadline for application: 9am on Monday of week 1 of Autumn Term (including requests from School of Public Policy students). We aim to inform students of the outcome of their request by 12noon on Tuesday of week 1 of Autumn Term.

For queries contact: spp.doubledegrees@lse.ac.uk

This course examines how societies govern the transition away from fossil fuels and toward a stable climate. It addresses three interconnected questions: what policies can drive decarbonisation, how can their feasibility be improved over time, and what makes climate policy politically viable and durable?

The course begins by introducing the climate problem — its physical foundations, its scale, and the governance challenges created by its long-time horizon, unequal impacts, and unequal responsibilities. It then examines the main policy instruments available to governments: carbon pricing, regulation and standards, innovation and industrial policy, and public investment. For each, the course analyses not only how these instruments work in principle but why they succeed or fail in practice — attending to distributional conflicts, incumbent interests, institutional design, and the interaction between policy choices and technological change. A recurring theme throughout the course is the role of innovation and directed technological change in making decarbonisation feasible and politically sustainable.

The course then broadens its lens to the international level, examining the architecture of the Paris Agreement, carbon border adjustments, the geopolitics of the energy transition, and the challenge of coordinating technology investments across countries. It addresses the political economy of fossil fuel phase-outs and just transitions, the conditions under which democracies can sustain long-term climate commitments, and the growing challenge of adapting to climate impacts that mitigation alone cannot prevent.

The course draws on case studies and policy experiences from all continents. It engages with a range of disciplinary perspectives — political science, public policy, innovation studies, and science and technology studies — as well as with ongoing debates about climate justice, the distributional consequences of decarbonisation, and the uneven capacity of different communities and countries to participate in and benefit from the climate transition. Questions of equity — who bears the costs of climate policy, whose vulnerabilities are prioritised in adaptation, and whose voices shape policy decisions — are integrated throughout the course rather than confined to a single week.

No prior knowledge of climate science or economics is required, though the course will equip students with the technical vocabulary needed to engage critically with climate policy debates.

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Learning Log / reflective learning report.

Various question types.

Formative weekly preparation of readings: Each week, students will be asked to read two papers. Twice in the term, each student will submit a reading memo with short points of discussion on one of the readings (bullet point form is acceptable). In Week 2, the memo will reflect on a hands-on simulation exercise using the En-ROADS climate policy simulator. These memos will not be marked but will be used to provide individual and class-level feedback.

Students will have the opportunity to submit a practice response to a sample exam question and receive formative feedback in advance.

Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2019. “Addressing Climate Change through Price and Non-Price Interventions.” European Economic Review 119 (October): 594–612.

Gillingham, Kenneth T., and Bryan Bollinger. 2021. “Social Learning and Solar Photovoltaic Adoption.” Management Science 67 (11): 7091–7112.

Genovese, Federica. 2019. “Sectors, Pollution, and Trade: How Industrial Interests Shape Domestic Positions on Global Climate Agreements.” International Studies Quarterly: A Publication of the International Studies Association 63 (4): 819–36.

Popp, David. "Innovation and climate policy." Annu. Rev. Resour. Econ. 2.1 (2010): 275-298.

Sabel, Charles F., and David G. Victor. "Governing global problems under uncertainty: making bottom-up climate policy work." Climatic Change 144.1 (2017): 15-27.

Hale, Thomas. "Catalytic cooperation." Global Environmental Politics 20.4 (2020): 73-98.

Exam (60%), duration: 90 Minutes in the Spring exam period.

Presentation (40%).

This component of assessment includes an element of group work.

The assessment for this course is designed to develop three complementary skills: sustained critical engagement with the literature, the ability to apply analytical frameworks to real-world policy problems, and command of the core concepts and debates in climate governance.

• Group Case Presentation (40%): Starting in around Week 4, groups of students will present and lead a discussion on a real-world climate policy case. Students are expected to explain the issues at stake from the perspective of the case's protagonists, and to draw on two research pieces that provide a critical perspective — for example, by situating the case within a broader pattern identified in the literature, or by evaluating the policy choices using the course's analytical framework. Presentations will be followed by a class discussion.
• In-Person Exam (60%): The final assessment is an in-person e-exam taken during Spring exam period. Students will be asked to explain core concepts from the course in concise written form and to engage with the key debates, presenting different sides of an argument. The exam is designed to test synthetic understanding of the course material rather than performance under time pressure, and ample time will be provided accordingly.