Structural Change in Europe II: European Sustainability Policy

Brief description

  • Climate change and other global challenges (planetary boundaries, global north and global south)
  • International environmental and sustainability policy, UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
  • Foundations and principles of European environmental and sustainability policy
  • EU regulatory and steering powers or instruments of European environmental and sustainability policy
  • Actors in environmental and sustainability policy (governments, industry, media, science, trade unions, non-governmental organisations, etc.)
  • In-depth treatment of selected topics of current European sustainability policy, e.g. energy security policy and energy union, Green Deal and Just Transition, emissions trading and CO2 prices
  • Basics of corporate sustainability management (sustainable risk management, CSR, ESG, sustainable finance/EU taxonomy)

Mode of delivery

face to face

Type

compulsory

Recommended or required reading and other learning resources/tools

Jordan, Andrew/Gravey, Viviane (Hrsg., 2021): Environmental Policy in the EU: Actors, Institutions and Processes, 4. Aufl., Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
Rogall, Holger/Gapp-Schmeling, Katharina (2021): Nachhaltige Ökonomie, Band 1: Grundlagen des nachhaltigen Wirtschaftens, 3. Aufl., Marburg: Metropolis.
Wurzel, Rüdiger K. W. et al. (2019): „The European Council, the Council and the Member States: Changing Environmental Leadership Dynamics in the European Union”, in: Environmental Politics, 28:2, S. 248-270.
Current literature will be announced by the lecturer at the beginning of the semester.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Teaching impulses; group discussions; self-directed learning, implementation and evaluation of expert hearings; preparation of a scientific case study and its presentation by students.

Assessment methods and criteria

Presentation (25%) and home assignment (75%)

Prerequisites and co-requisites

None

Infos

Degree programme

Europäische Wirtschaftspolitik

Cycle

International Programme

ECTS Credits

5.00

Language of instruction

German

Curriculum

Full-Time

Academic year

2025

Semester

3 WS

Incoming

No

Learning outcome

After successful completion of the module, students can:

  • present and distinguish the relevant principles, instruments, actors and strategies of current European and national environmental and sustainability policies,
  • classify these principles, instruments and actors in current discourses on problems of sustainability as well as paradigms of economic action (e.g. common good economy and post-growth economy),
  • evaluate relevant sustainability problems for selected sectors or companies in a structured way on the basis of sustainability criteria,
  • apply concepts for the operationalisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the context of non-financial corporate reporting (CSR, standards such as Global Reporting Initiative, Sustainable Finance, Science-based Targets and EU taxonomy for Green Finance) and examine their suitability,
  • derive economic policy recommendations to strengthen sustainability as an element of securing Europe as a business location.

Course code

0899-23-01-VZ-DE-M3.4