Environmental Economics talks about the complex connections and wide interactions between Economics and the Environment. Over the last few decades, the tools of economic analysis have become essential in analyzing environmental problems and providing the basis for developing sustainable policy solutions. Environmental Economics is playing an increasingly central role in both understanding the causes of, and designing policy solutions to, existing environmental problems. Amongst others, economic analyses have been used to determine the net costs/benefits of different policy scenarios, to better understand how to achieve and sustain international co-operation, and to evaluate the efficiency of different environmental policy instruments. In these, and across a wide range of other issues, from biodiversity and ecosystem loss, air pollution to, more broadly, the link between the environment and sustainable economic development, the theory and applied tools of Environmental Economics are uniquely placed to inform and guide decision-makers in addressing environmental challenges. Keeping in view the importance of these issues and to bring the students closer to the frontier of knowledge, the Department of Environmental Economics was established at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad, Pakistan to:
• Impart a sound understanding of the nexus between the economy and the environment;
• Teach major concepts and theories to explain and describe the economic behaviour of human beings and its impact on the environment.
• Outline and contrast the major economic schools of thought on the environment, and highlight the weaknesses of each market system (especially with regard to environmental aspects) and discuss the associated role of the government in the economy.
• Supply high quality personnel to the federal and provincial governments, to educational institutions, to research institutions and to the private sector.
The teaching curriculum focuses on developing the role and application of economic approaches for environmental issues, essential features of the market mechanism to control environmental degradation for sustainable economic development, the nature and treatment of environmental effects in economic reasoning and decision-making, and the application of environmental policy instruments based on economic analysis. The course work is based on contemporary environmental management approaches (e.g. ecological modernization, ecological economics, and industrial ecology) with substantial (physical) economy dimensions. After successfully completing this programme the students should:
• Have a basic understanding for the measurement of net social impact of alternative environmental options.
• Be able to apply economic tools for valuation and other non-economic decision-making tools; and also distinguish between economic valuation tools and policy instruments.
• Describe, critically review, and engage in the appropriate selection of the major existing economic tools for environmental management.
• Be familiar with the essential features of the range of contemporary conceptual frameworks and sustainability assessment approaches with a significant economic component.