Sustainability, Climate Change and Economics
PostgraduateCUR-SCP5492025
Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
Identify where economics crosses paths with policies for climate action and sustainable development.Strip economic approaches to sustainability down to their essence. Unpack the taxation system. Look at local and global climate change initiatives.
Enrol today with instant approval and no entry requirements
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 23 Nov 2025
- Entry requirements
- No ATAR needed, No prior study
- Duration
- 13 weeks
- Price from
- $2,735
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- FEE-HELP available
Sustainability, Climate Change and Economics
About this subject
At the completion of this subject students will be able to:
- review contemporary economic approaches and methodologies to sustainability and climate change, including casual as well as responsive aspects
- analyse and synthesise sustainability-informed attributes of economic activities and how properties and meta data can be used to create taxa to organise data that are useful for decision-making, management accounting and monitoring for effective sustainability and climate change action
- understand sustainability-informed economic approaches to climate change can be applied at local scales and integrated with global parameters and initiatives
- work individually and within groups to develop and refine techniques, methodologies and concepts to enhance the workability and acceptability of sustainability-informed approaches
- create innovative approaches that demonstrate research skills across a variety of disciplines and which contribute to international academic and business understanding
- evaluate and communicate ideas orally, in writing and with technological applications to ensure the implementation and uptake of concepts and ideas is effective.
- General introduction, overview and organisation of the unit
- Circular economy – an economics perspective
- Market mechanism
- Market failure
- Climate as a public good
- Economic approach to climate change
- Economic tools in policy development
- Economic evaluation of environmental and social changes
- Regulations and market-based mechanisms
- Cost-benefit analysis, surrogate markets and shadow prices
- Environmental and social accounting, economic agents, stakeholders and policy process
- Climate policy tools in practice – ETS, CDM
- Growth, development and sustainable development
- Innovation and ethical economics, economics of global agreements
- Public-private partnership for climate actions
- The business case for climate change, sustainable businesses and jobs
This innovative approach to economics focuses on policy implementation for climate action and sustainable development. It moves beyond conventional approaches by reframing economics, accounting and policy within sustainability principles, parameters and processes, so that climate-friendly actions and sustainable behaviours are rewarded, rather than penalised. The focus is on implementation through the re-evaluation of economic activities, the restructuring of accounting narratives, and the used of monitoring and management regimes that support continuous sustainability learning. The subject provides new relevance for many existing methods currently marginalised in conventional policy processes. Students will learn ways of thinking and techniques that utilise new information system technologies. Socio-cultural and biophysical understandings from other sciences are integrated in a range of theoretical and practical perspectives on complex issues that have local and international relevance. The skills developed will enhance the employment prospects for students with organisations that are keen to move beyond business-as-usual to embrace the new world of sustainability-informed accounting, governance, management and policy.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the Academic Integrity module.
- Essay 1 (35%)
- Essay 2 (35%)
- Oral presentation (30%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
No entry requirements
Additional requirements
- Equipment requirements - Audio video equipment required
- Other requirements - Additional materials. Access to the Internet. Admission to degree may be required.
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
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What to study next?
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
Master of Environment and Climate Emergency
PostgraduateCUR-SCP-MAS
PostgraduateOUA-PSU-GCE
Graduate Diploma in Environment and Climate Emergency
PostgraduateCUR-SCP-GDI
Graduate Certificate in Environment and Climate Emergency
PostgraduateCUR-SCP-GCE
Master of Urban and Regional Planning
PostgraduateCUR-URP-MAS
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