Keio University Syllabus and Timetable

Background
Economic growth and population expansion are predominantly linked to increase in industrial production, escalating flow of factors of production and goods and services across different sectors, rapid urbanization, accelerating social and economic infrastructure development and rising per capita income. Hardly anyone would disagree that all these economic activities are inexorably associated with unrestrained exploitation of natural resources.
Currently, the global economy requires approximately 100 billion tonnes of material resource inputs including non-metallic mineral, metallic ores, fossil fuels, biomass and recycled materials to sustain its momentum of growth. Rising resource consumption has seen the amount of virgin resources extracted from the Earth increased by almost 400% since 1970 and is expected to grow by 60% by 2060. The prevailing unsustainable resource extraction and consumption patterns seem to bear out the idea that international resource policy continues to reflect short- or medium-term economic priorities over long-term environmental sustainability.
Against the backdrop of the biophysical limits to growth and finitude of our Earth’s system, the voracious capitalist cycle of resource extraction and consumption, if left unchecked, are bound to lead to a vicious cycle of resource depletion, industrial pollution, habitat destruction, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, overburdened carbon sinks and climate change. This will push our planetary system to the brink of collapse to the detriment of human long-term existence and socioeconomic prosperity.
In light of these considerations, environmental economics must systematically develop policy responses to prevent or at least mitigate the dysfunctional relationship between unconstrained capitalist resource extraction and consumption, and environmental sustainability. This bespeaks the need for a green transformation to sustainable resource consumption and conservation based on resource efficiency, resources sustainability and environmental efficiency, which is in line with the overall biocapacity of the natural environment.
Purpose/Aims
The purpose of this course is to draw students’ attention to the dynamic implications of the links between the prevailing unprecedented global resource extraction and utilization, high input-high output industrial production and, resource scarcity. This allows students to conceive the relationships between the consequences of overexploitation of resources and irreversible material transformation in the production system, and their crucially important implications for resource efficiency and environmental efficiency. The course also seeks to guide students to make mental connections across disciplines with real life experiences based on comprehensive synthesis of evidence of the unsustainable resource consumption and sustainability practices in resource management. Here, it places great emphasis in developing critical thinking and analytical skills among students in identifying policy responses to the economic and environmental effects of overexploitation of natural resources.
The foregoing takes us to a broad-spectrum of debates relating to the properties of natural resources, the principles of resource efficiency, resource sustainability and environmental efficiency, environmental impacts of irreversible input-output resource conversions and, sustainable resource consumption and conservation, among other subjects of interest.
Methods
The course will be conducted using interactive lecture strategy to enable students to interact actively and directly with the instructor over the course material content. This contributes to enhance students’ active learning, class participation and motivation. The course also employs case method teaching approach to develop critical thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills among students by immersing them in real-world scenarios.
The course will begin with an introduction of the theoretical concepts and principles governing the properties of natural capital. This is followed by discussions of various related topics as shown in the syllabus section. We then proceed with research-based learning conducted through lectures, class discussions and active student participation. All lectures will be prepared by the instructor drawing from academic research using enhanced impact PowerPoint slides with vivid illustrations. The course materials will be explained in a simple way, which are easy to understand and assimilate. The class will be attuned to differences in students’ comprehensibility to bolster learning outcomes.
Basically, the course is structured into three sections as follows:
1. Theory: Theoretical knowledge allows students to gain a deeper understanding of concepts and principles, which can be applied to identify a problem and to devise mitigating measures to improve problematic situations. The focus of this section is to explain various key environmental and resource economics concepts in meeting these needs.
2. Problem-solving lectures (from theory to practice): The ability to connect theory and practice is of great importance as it allows students to gain an in-depth understanding of an issue at hand. This serves to enhance students’ critical thinking and essential analytical skills for their future professions or academic advancement. To achieve this objective, this section employs case method teaching and learning covering a number of cross-cutting themes as shown in the syllabus section.
3. Interactive lectures and class discussions (student-centered lectures): Active student participation and involvement in the classroom is a fundamental requirement for learning beyond simple recall of facts and lecture materials. The emphasis here is to engage students in active class participation on contemporary policy debates using engaging mini-lectures interspersed with class discussions. This serves to promote students’ innovative ideas and communication skills through instructor-student and student-student interactions and discussions.
Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this course will be able:

 To arrive at a clear understanding of the connectivity between the properties of renewable and non-renewable resources and the biophysical limits to resource extraction and consumption, and their implications for sustainable resource consumption and conservation.
 To conceptualize environmental economics from multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives∸ from resource economics and ecological economics perspectives to the thermodynamics framework and in the sustainability context. This allows students to build up their cross-discipline analytical skills for informed decision-making in the design of effective policy responses to the problems of resource scarcity.
 To apply specialized and practical theoretical knowledge learned throughout the course to critically interpret various complex environmental or economic issues such as carbon emissions, climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainable economic growth, and to come out with reasonable conclusions and mitigating solutions.
 To enhance critical thinking and problem-solving skills and communication skills through interactive lectures, class discussions and case study analyses.

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Alfred Greiner and Willi Semmler. 2008. The Global Environment, Natural Resources, and Economic Growth. Oxford University Press: New York
Choy Yee Keong. 2020. Global Environmental Sustainability: Case Studies and Analysis of the United Nations’ Journey toward Sustainable Development. Elsevier: Amsterdam, London, New York
Eban S. Goodstein. 2011. Economics and the Environment. John Wiley & Sons: United States
Jon M. Conrad. 2003. Resource Economics. Cambridge University Press: New York
Ken Cole. 1999. Economy–Environment–Development–Knowledge. Routledge: London and New York
Paul Ekins. 2000. Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability. The prospects for green growth. Routledge: London and New York
Tom Tietenberg and Lynne Lewis. 2013. Environmental & Natural Resource Economics. Pearson: Boston

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