KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
The course aims to give the main theoretical models and empirical evidence that describe the relationship between the economy and the environment, the assessment methods used for natural resources and the environment, and the main environmental policies. The court also aims at giving the fundamental knowledge on the principles and tools for economic evaluation or multi-criteria of energy requalification projects of buildings and transition plans energy. Thus building the ability to understand the fundamental legal provisions of the energy transition in coherence with the objectives of the European Green Deal. An other objective is to acquire the fundamental knowledge on the socio-ecological development models and the identify the actors of eco-social change.
Understand the main theoretical models and empirical evidence describing the relationship between the economy and the environment, the methods used to value the environment and natural resources, and the main environmental policies.
Knowledge of the fundamental principles and tools for the economic or multi-criteria evaluation of energy efficiency retrofit projects and energy transition plans.
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
The knowledge acquired serves to understand and interpret the complexity of the relationships between the administrative system, the economic one, the environmental ecosystem and the social context. The acquired knowledge also allows to perform the evaluation of a project or plan based on single or multiple criteria.
The knowledge acquired should enable students to understand and interpret the complexity of the links between the economic system, the ecosystem and the social context.
The knowledge acquired serves to carry out the evaluation of a project or plan based on single or multiple criteria.
MAKING JUDGEMENTS: The ability to make judgements is developed through the exam preparation, which calls for the personal revision and assimilation of the material presented in the course.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
The communication capability includes the ability to describe with appropriate language the topics discussed in the course, and one of the assigned scientific papers. The student should also be able to describe the goals and impacts of the environmental policies, to discuss relevant legal issues, to evaluate methods and results achieved in a technical-economic feasibility study.
LEARNING SKILLS
Learning skills are stimulated by deepening the knowledge acquired during the course and by preparing and presenting a paper assigned by the lecturers.

It is advisable to have taken courses in Economics and Real Estate Appraisal or Applied Economics for Engineering (not mandatory).

The course is divided into three modules - LEGISLATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE, ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS, and ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF PROJECTS FOR THE ENERGY TRANSITION - and is characterized by the following contents.
The course aims to provide a general framework of the fundamental provisions on environmental legislation and energy transition at a European and Italian level. Particular attention will be paid to the authorization regulations for interventions that have an impact on the ecosystem, on the provisions relating to the implementation of public contracts and on construction regulations and on expropriations.
Introduction to economics, natural resources, and the environment. Markets and public goods. Environmental policies.
Principles of discounted cash flow analysis for energy efficiency retrofit projects and cost-benefit analysis of energy transition plans: objectives, structure, and corporate culture; costs and revenues of projects and plans; analytical-financial approaches to evaluation; economic evaluation methods; practical examples of methods. Fundamentals and general structure of multi-criteria analysis (MCA): methods and approaches for criterion evaluation in MCA.

F. Fracchia, Environmental law. Principles, Definitions and Protection models, Editoriale Scientifica, 2018 or
E. Fischer, Environmental Law: A very short introduction, Oxford University Press, 2017 For the basic knowledge of EU law
R. Schütze, An introduction to European Law, Oxford University Press, third ed., 2020
For the basic knowledge of administrative law
F.G. Scoca, Administrative Justice in Italy: origins and evolution, Italian Journal of Public Law (Online) – 2009
B.G. Mattarella, Administrative law in Italy: an historical sketch, in Rivista de Direito administrativo, 2016
For environemtnal economics
Hanley, N., Shogren, J., White, B. (2019) Introduction to environmental economics, Oxford University Press, UK
Tietenberg, T., & Lewis, L. (2024). Environmental and natural resource economics. Routledge
For Evaluation
Hoesli M., Morri G. (2010) L'investimento immobiliare. Mercato, valutazioni, rischio e portafoglio. Hoepli, (IT) Baum, A. E., Crosby, N., & Devaney, S. (2021). Property investment appraisal. John Wiley & Sons. Dodgson, J. S., Spackman, M., Pearman, A., & Phillips, L. D. (2009). Multi-criteria analysis: a manual. OECD (2018), Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Environment: Further Developments and Policy Use, OECD Publishing, Paris

LEGISLATION AND SOCIAL CHANG1. General principles on environmental law from an international point of view 2. The constitutional principles pertaining the protection of the environment and the ecosystem 3. The European principles pertaining environmental and ecosystem protection 4. The main European regulatory sources with particular reference to Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 on climate neutrality and Directive 2004/35/EC on climate liability 5. The Italian regulatory provisions: Legislative Decree no. 152/2006 6. The environmental evaluation procedures: a general perspective 7. The environmental evaluation procedures: VINCA, VAS, VIA, AIA 8. Simplified authorization regimes for energy transition 9. PNRR and Next gen EU: general framework of intervention 10. PNRR and Next gen EU: environmental transition 11. General framework on the discipline of public contracts 12. General framework on public-private partnerships in Italian tender legislation 13. Energy Performance Contracts – EPC 14. Renewable energy: the general framework 15. Localization of renewable energy plants: procedures and critical aspects 16. Authorization procedure for renewable energy plants 17. General framework on the discipline of expropriation for public utility 18. Brief notes on building regulations with 19. focus on the energy reconversion of buildings and on special provisions in favor of the energy transition 20. General introduction to legal protection in environmental matters ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS 0. Introduction: the economy, natural resources and the environment. 1. Markets and public goods 1.1 Externalities and public goods 1.2 How markets work and why they fail 2. Environmental policies 2.1 Environmental standards, command and control instruments 2.2 Environmental taxes 2.3 Environmental subsidies and incentives 2.4 Negotiable environmental permits 2.5 The role of innovation ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF PROJECTS FOR THE ENERGY TRANSITION 1. Private Investment Evaluation 1.1. Definition of investment 1.2. Investment evaluation techniques 1.3. Classification of investments 1.4. Cash flow analysis 1.5. Analytical-financial approaches to investment evaluation 1.6. Selection of the discount rate 1.7. Risk and uncertainty analysis in investment evaluation 2. Public investment evaluation 2.1. Cost-effectiveness analysis 2.2. Willingness to pay and willingness to accept compensation 2.3. Contingent valuation 2.4. The hedonic pricing method 2.5. Appraisal-based valuation methods 2.6. Choosing the social discount rate 2.7. Cost-benefit analysis 3. Multicriteria analysis methods 3.1. Multi-attribute and multi-objective methods 3.2. Phases of multi-attribute evaluation 3.3. Value/utility functions 3.4. Estimating attribute weights 3.5. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) 3.6. The ELECTRE method

Classroom lectures and presentation of case studies.

The students are warmly invited to attend the lectures in order to benefit from the application of methods to the case studies. The teaching material, including case studies, is made available to students via the Moodle. During the course seminars will be held.

The exam is a written test with open-ended questions, multiple choice questions and exercises on methodological aspects or simple applications of methods. The presentation of the team or individual work is also assessed in order to verify learning achievement. Students attending the in-person lectures may take written in-term test as an alternative to the final exam

This course explores topics closely related to one or more goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs).