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Get ready to Spring into action!

Status will be released for Spring IntroSems by March 5th. Look for the list of IntroSems with Space Available to post here on March 7th.

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MS&E 92Q: International Environmental Policy

Climate Protest Sign. Markus Spiske on Unsplash.

General Education Requirements

Not currently certified for a requirement. Courses are typically considered for Ways certification a quarter in advance.


Course Description

This IntroSem is an introduction to the science, economics, and politics of international environmental policy. A range of international environmental issues will be covered in some depth with climate change a consistent theme throughout the quarter. The class starts with the basics of the welfare economics and sustainability science approaches to environmental policy analysis and development from the perspective of multiple regions and sectors, and levels of government, from global to local. Following this introduction, much of the class discussion will focus on the desirability of integrating these two perspectives in addressing climate change and other important international environmental challenges. The interested student will not need any prerequisites to participate in this course. Course materials will be self-contained and drawn from materials used in briefing state, national and international environmental policy decision makers.


Meet the Instructor: John Weyant

John Weyant

John P. Weyant is Professor of Management Science and Engineering and Director of the Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Precourt Institute for Energy and an affiliated faculty member of the Stanford School of Earth, Environment and Energy Sciences, the Woods Institute for the Environment, and the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford. His current research focuses on analysis of multi-sector, multi-region coupled human and earth systems dynamics, global change systems analysis, energy technology assessment, and models for strategic planning. Weyant was a founder and serves as chairman of the Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium (IAMC), a fourteen-year old collaboration among over 60 member institutions from around the world. He has also been an active adviser to the United Nations, the European Commission, U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of State, and the Environmental Protection Agency. In California, he has been an adviser to the California Air Resources, the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission.