This research-based Master-level course will introduce students to the state-of-the-art political economy debates on climate change and energy transition. The first part will discuss and compare different strands of contemporary political-economy literature on climate change and forms of climate change mitigation. The second part will comprise a historical-institutionalist study of how carbon-based production systems have evolved from the coal-based, UK-centric industrial evolution to the turn of oil-based. We will also discuss political-economic implications of nuclear-based energy systems as well as the intended turn to renewables-based systems (‘Green Transition’). The third part will address different types of modeling climate change and the various policy recommendations these derive. For instance, we will cover the DICE model of Nordhaus which is the key ingredient of the IPCC reports. A quintessential example for the market-failure paradigm, it suggests carbon pricing and cap-and-trade schemes. We will contrast this with Post Keynesian models, input-output models, as well as approaches of ‘war finance’ and Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). In some of the sessions we will do small modelling exercises in R to get to know the core of the models discussed in the course. The final part will look into the systemic and procedural challenges of financing large-scale transformations from a Monetary Architecture perspective.  Schließen