Looking forward Sustainability: The Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development course held at UCT from Mid-July to End of July, piloted by Maria Damon (University of New-York) and including teaching by EfD research fellows Martine Visser and Edwin Muchapondwa, explored the ways that economic analysis can help identify underlying problems and formulate effective policy responses to them.
Major topics included in the lectures were: approaches for understanding behavior and social preferences in poor communities; what these imply for the management of natural resources; choosing optimal policy instruments for pollution reduction and environmental protection; and relationships between human health and the environment. Students also participated in behavioral experiments related to common property resource management, public goods, and climate risk and went to field trips.
An excursion was organised to the Kuyasa Clean Development Mechanism Pilot Project. This project involves the retrofitting of solar water heater (SWHs), insulated ceilings and energy efficient lighting in over 2,300 low-cost homes in the Khayelitsha townships. According to Martine Visser and Maria Damon, students were highly motivated by the exposure to such a pragmatic solution to climate change and that will see an immediate impact on the social, health and economic well-being of the targeted beneficiaries.