Climate change is one of the most complex environmental threats confronting the world, and yet it is also one of the most pressing economic and geopolitical issues of today. It threatens the natural resource availability and energy security critical for any nation’s sustained economic growth.

What concerns us more is that it is becoming also a strategic business issue that is potentially threatening the growth and competitive advantage of companies, industries and national economies. It is impacting not just energy intensive industries like oil and gas, petrochemicals, and power, but also all industries including automobile, retail, consumer goods, finance and insurance industry, that operate in national as well as global markets.

Climate change has local, national and international business implications. Through a series of multilateral negotiations among nations to address climate change, in particular Kyoto Protocol, a set of market mechanisms had been agreed upon. This market-based approach allows to attach an economic value to carbon and has offered firms opportunities to trade their carbon emissions with other players in the market. Shareholders, financial institutions, investors and insurance companies are also incorporating climate change considerations in their risks and asset management and financial investment decisions.

Climate change has stimulated R&D activities for low carbon economy, and provoking high carbon industries to reconfigure their production and distribution systems. Governments are exerting greater pressure and incentives on corporations to reduce GHG footprints. There is also a growing consumer demand for energy-efficient appliances, cars and buildings that have lower carbon footprints.

Firms, especially those engaged in international business, face higher business risks. These risks are not mostly from physical threats of climate change, but more likely from regulatory risks and reputation risks - increasingly susceptible to political dynamics, ambiguities and variable climate change regulations in different countries and continents of the world. Firms have to strategically position their global businesses according to the international regulatory constraints imposed by climate change.

In this course, we will therefore discuss the various facets of climate change in relation to its impacts and opportunities to firms, but will be more focused on the development of carbon markets and how firms should reconfigure their strategic positions along with better understanding of climate change and carbon markets.

In our classes, we, the instructor, students and outside speakers will engage in discussion and collectively explore and investigate the followings:

• How is climate change becoming a strategic business issue for corporations?

• How is the international regulatory environment on climate change affecting international business?

• What have been the underlying negotiations among nations to create carbon markets to address climate change?

• What are economics of climate related policy options – carbon tax vs cap-and-trade systems?

• How has global carbon markets affected corporations and industries?

• How can corporations strategically adapt to risks from climate change and carbon markets?

• What strategies can corporations adopt to mitigate risks associated with and adapt to climate change?

This course will attempt to provide a platform for an in-depth understanding of climate change and associated carbon and climate markets as a strategic business issue. To this end, we need to understand that climate change is essentially a form of externality major part of which corporations have created by emitting green house gases in their process of doing business.

We also need to understand that this externality now is going through fundamental transformation to become a new market due to the introduction of the global agreement in putting a cap on this externality. This leads to the creation of carbon markets which could provide least cost ways of achieving the cap and provide numerous economic and competition risks and opportunities to corporations.

However, we also need to understand that there are various uncertainties and conflicting positions among different stakeholders, more specifically, in the evolution and development of carbon markets along with uncertain future agreements – post-Kyoto Protocol. There will not be assurance of stable price signal from carbon markets that makes most long-term investment decisions to address climate change will be put on hold. This is not only with global carbon markets, but also with local and national markets being expected soon.

Regardless of these uncertainties, there are basic agreements and consensus that climate change related risks – physical, regulatory and reputational ones – will increase, and even capital markets and institutional investors are becoming concerned with these risks and corp

Continued economic growth is necessary to alleviate poverty, reduce hunger, accommodate the needs of a rising world population and meet the aspirations for higher living standards among people everywhere. Economic growth entails tradeoffs. The question is whether the resultant economic development will also, on balance, be environmentally sustainable? Green finance may help to ensure that the answer to the aforementioned question is yes. Economic development, in general, and the creation of new, more efficient technologies, in particular, must be financed. This creates an opportunity for society to influence consumption, production, and investment decisions via financing decisions in order to promote a “green” agenda. Society’s pursuit of a green agenda creates, in turn, new opportunities for both entrepreneurs and investors.

This course examines the nature of green finance, the role it can play in encouraging sustainable economic development and some of the business opportunities it creates. A broad view of green finance is taken in order to examine the impact that changes in the cost and availability of capital, loan guarantees, grants, tax breaks, subsidies, and other changes in financial incentives can have on encouraging socially desired consumption, production and investment decisions. This course examines the role that governments, multilateral development institutions, public-private sector partnerships, private firms and individuals can play in achieving these objectives. A number of issues are discussed including: social costs; the appropriateness of market mechanisms in producing green solutions; observed tradeoffs between pollution generation and wealth creation; and the potential challenges of pursuing a green agenda.

Various reports of the United Nations and other international organizations are used as a source of consensus opinions and facts as well as a starting point for class discussions. Other perspectives are both considered and encouraged. This is a case course. Active participation in class discussions is expected.

This course deals with China's growing economy and becomes one of the giant global economies due to its sheer population size, etc. In the process Chinese born/historical entrepreneurship might have played important roles. We try to study and discuss not only the recent decades of China's remarkable economic development and business success but also review or trace back to their traditional economic success and successful management and entrepreneurship. Further we study and discuss to learn how to do business in China.

This course is designed to provide participants with practical skills for developing the intercultural communication skills and cross cultural competencies. As we move into the 21st century, where globalization is dramatically shifting and demographics are changing, it is vital that our workforce has a solid and practical understanding of HOW TO manage and lead in different international business settings.