Business and Climate Change: MBA Course Syllabus

Abstract

Climate change and its impacts raise momentous concerns. Hundreds of companies worldwide are aggressively getting in front of it, since they are the constituency with the strongest links to climate change: companies are the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions; equally, by deploying R&D, financial resources, technologies, and talent, they will be the ones to provide solutions to address climate change. There is an emerging, multi-trillion dollar ‘climate economy’ that will help to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The main questions we will ask and address in ‘Business and Climate Change’ are: (1) What is climate change, and why should you as an MBA, and the company you work for, care? (2) What does the emerging climate economy mean for your career, your firm, your industry? (3) How do companies measure and manage emissions? (4) What are the tools and frameworks to understand regulatory responses (e.g., a carbon tax or cap-and-trade), and to assess how a company’s business model is exposed to climate change? (5) What do you need to know about the global policy-making process and how it will impact business?

Keywords: Climate change, Global warming, Greenhouse gas, Carbon dioxide, Cap and trade, Carbon tax

JEL Classification: A23, H20, Q25