Introduction to Environmental Policy

The module will provide an overview of environmental concerns in national, regional, and global scenario with probable solutions from social science perspectives. Main topics to be covered will include pollution due to human activities, reckless usage and poor management of scarce natural resources, extinctions of species and climate change. It will emphasize debates over economic growth versus conservation of environment; the interactions and conflicts of interests between public and private players; profit and non-profit makers in formation of environmental laws and policies. Further, it will discuss the importance of proactive governance and thus the role of civil society and policy makers in retaining environmental balances. The objective of this module is to familiarize students with causes and consequences of environmental decay; provide tools to analyze the risks; ability to refer the appropriate policy and connect with the policy making process to retain existing environment. This will be useful for students who want to study environmental sciences, ecological economics, sociology, policy making, and corporate social responsibility.