Aims

The main objective of this course is to understand the concept of sustainable development and it's implications on the social and economic dimensions of the society. And the end of the course, the student is supposed to be able to:
- establish links between a sustainable development approach and some basic concepts or approaches proposed by economics (growth, employment, international trade…), sociology (social cohesion, poverty, quality of life…) or political science (democracy, participation…);
- understand the institutional and political questions related to sustainable development (Rio Conference, Kyoto protocol, national and local sustainable development plans…);
- apprehend globally the economic, social, environmental, cultural and institutional dimensions of human development.

Main themes

The course is divided into three parts:
- historical and institutional underpinnings of sustainable development: origins, international treaties…; essential concepts (externalities, (non) renewable resources; ecological footprint, global change…); introduction to the environmental problems;
- links with socioeconomic questions like : externalities, growth, (resource) productivity, enterprises choices, consumer behavior…;
- some specific topics: economic instruments (ecotaxes, deposits, subsidies, pollution rights…); environment, resource productivity (factor 4) and employment; greenhouse effect and carbon tax…