In this course, students will study environmental policy instruments and discuss their strengths and shortcomings, with the goal of developing the ability to apply and assess them to address practical sustainability problems. On completion of the course students should be able to: • Assess how sustainability challenges can be addressed through a range of public policy instruments (taxes, subsidies, pollution permit markets, voluntary measures, etc.). • Understand and discuss the economic principles behind these policies. • Engage with debates about the practical strengths and weaknesses of major types of environmental policies. • Analyse the appropriateness of specific policy instruments for a given case study and pre-empt main implementation issues. • Recognise and apply a range of theoretical frameworks to conceptualise the relation between the larger economy, society and the environment Environmental and sustainability policy instruments are the different strategies that governments and the public sector can employ in order to achieve socially desirable sustainability goals. These instruments include taxes and subsidies (such as pollution taxes in urban centres or subsidies for renewable energy), tradable pollution permits (like carbon markets), and market-based instruments (e.g., payments for ecosystem services). Students will learn the economic-theoretical foundations for each of these policy instruments. These foundations include the assumptions or conditions under which they perform adequately, as well as their limitations. With a robust understanding of these instruments, students will be able to analyse and assess which instruments may be more suitable for specific policy circumstances and be able to make recommendations for a given practical case. The course covers more innovative policy approaches such as voluntary environmental measures, and introduces sustainability management strategies in the private sector (business). It concludes with a view of key macro-scale concepts and models for sustainability policy at the interface between the economy, society and the environment.