Energy and Resources < University of California, Berkeley

This is an archived copy of the 2020-21 guide. To access the most recent version of the guide, please visit http://guide.berkeley.edu.

UC Berkeley’s Spring 2021 Plans for Instruction Announced.

About the Program

UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group (ERG) confers an interdisciplinary Undergraduate Minor in Energy and Resources and a Summer Minor/Certificate in Sustainability, as well as graduate M.A., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees.

Energy and Resources Group research and courses emphasize science-based knowledge of the environmental consequences of resource use; analytical tools that promote efficiency, conservation, affordability, and equity in energy and resource use; and understanding of the social and institutional contexts in which resource and environmental problems arise, and in which creative and ethical solutions can be sustained. It is this synthesis of basic science, practical problem-solving, and constructive social critique that defines ERG.

Visit the Energy and Resources Group website for more information about our undergraduate minors and graduate programs.

Energy and Resources Minor

The Energy and Resources Minor offers knowledge and skills to enable matriculated UC Berkeley undergraduates to address the complex and interdependent issues associated with the interaction of social, economic, political, technical, and environmental factors. Students in any major may add the Energy and Resources minor, which is composed of two core and three elective upper division courses. Several of these courses require preparation in mathematics or science.

Summer Sustainability Minor

Whatever direction your studies take you, the Energy and Resources Summer Minor or Certificate in Sustainability will equip you with tools to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing the world today. This program offers a practical and relevant interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of environmental, economic, social, political, and cultural issues.

Students in the interdisciplinary Summer Minor in Sustainability will learn about:

The science, engineering, economics, and policy of renewable energy
Biodiversity, environmental degradation, and the science behind climate change
The business and economics of environmental sustainability
Environmental change and social justice

The Summer Minor or Certificate in Sustainability is open to matriculated UC Berkeley undergraduates, students from other institutions, and the general public. Upon completion, UC Berkeley undergraduates receive a Minor in Sustainability, while other participants receive a Certificate in Sustainability from UC Berkeley. Visit the Energy and Resources Group website for more information.

Visit Group Website

Minor Requirements

The Energy and Resources Minor

Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program. These programs have set requirements and are noted officially on the transcript in the memoranda section, but they are not noted on diplomas.

General Guidelines

All courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements below must be taken for graded credit, except for courses taken in spring or summer 2020, when students will be allowed to take courses Pass/No Pass.
A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is required for courses used to fulfill the minor requirements.
No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
At least four upper division courses must be taken at UC Berkeley.

Declaring the Minor

Students interested in pursuing the Energy and Resources minor should submit an Intent to Declare the Minor form during the semester in which upper division minor coursework is started. For information on how to submit your intent to pursue the minor, courses that fulfill the minor, how common lower division prerequisites may be completed, and how to declare the minor once completed, please visit the ERG website.

Requirements FOR THE eNERGY AND rESOURCES mINOR

Students have or will develop strong foundations in math, physics, chemistry, and biology.

There are no lower division courses required for the Energy and Resources Minor; however in some cases lower division coursework is required in order to be enrolled in the upper division courses.

Many of the Energy and Resources minor upper division courses have prerequisites such as: MATH 1A-MATH 1B or MATH 16A-MATH 16B; PHYSICS 7A-PHYSICS 7B or PHYSICS 8A- PHYSICS 8B; CHEM 1A or CHEM 4A; and BIOLOGY 1B

Course List
Code	Title	Units
Upper division requirements (five courses):
Two core courses:
ENE,RES C100	Energy and Society	4
ENE,RES 102	Quantitative Aspects of Global Environmental Problems	4
Three upper division electives, approved by the ERG faculty (see below):
At least one course must be in the social sciences.
At least one course must be in the natural sciences or engineering.
At one of the three upper division electives must be from the ERG department.

Electives

The choice of electives should be made with two goals in mind: exploring the range of approaches available to address energy and resource issues and complementing the student's major. The latter can be achieved by adding relevant depth in closely related areas or by exploring methods and approaches that contrast with the tools and knowledge base employed in the major. Students are encouraged to discuss their program with the Energy and Resources minor advisor.

The following courses have been approved, but students should contact the Energy and Resources minor advisor to request approval of alternate courses. At least four upper division courses must be taken at Berkeley.

Course List
Code	Title	Units
Social science electives
ENE,RES 175	Water and Development	4
ENE,RES C176	Climate Change Economics	4
ENE,RES 190	Seminar in Energy and Resources Issues	3
ECON/ENVECON C102	Natural Resource Economics	4
ESPM 102D	Climate and Energy Policy	4
ESPM 155AC	Sociology and Political Ecology of Agro-Food Systems	4
ESPM 160AC/HISTORY 120AC	American Environmental and Cultural History	4
ESPM 161	Environmental Philosophy and Ethics	4
ESPM 168	Political Ecology	4
ESPM 169	International Environmental Politics	4
Natural science and engineering electives
ENE,RES 101	Ecology and Society	3
ENE,RES 131	Data, Environment and Society	4
CIV ENG 103	Introduction to Hydrology	3
CIV ENG 107	Climate Change Mitigation	3
CIV ENG 111	Environmental Engineering	3
CIV ENG 114	Environmental Microbiology	3
CIV ENG 115	Water Chemistry	3
EPS 117	Geomorphology	4
ESPM 111	Ecosystem Ecology	4
ESPM 112	Microbial Ecology	3
ESPM 120	Science of Soils	3
ESPM/EPS C129	Biometeorology	3
ESPM 131	Soil Microbiology and Biogeochemistry	3
ESPM 140	General Entomology	4
ESPM/EPS C180/CIV ENG C106	Air Pollution	3
INTEGBI 106A	Physical and Chemical Environment of the Ocean	4
INTEGBI 152	Environmental Toxicology	4
INTEGBI 153	Course Not Available	3
INTEGBI 157LF	Ecosystems of California	4
Other electives
ESPM 118	Agricultural Ecology	4
CY PLAN 119	Planning for Sustainability	4

Summer Minor Requirements

Summer Minor and Certificate in Sustainability

Whatever direction your studies take you, the Summer Minor or Certificate in Sustainability will equip you with tools to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing the world today.

The summer minor and certificate program in sustainability is open to matriculated UC Berkeley undergraduates and visiting summer-only students. Upon completion, UC Berkeley undergraduates receive a Minor in Sustainability; summer-only students receive a Certificate in Sustainability from UC Berkeley. More information can be found by clicking here .

CURRICULUM:

The Sustainability Minor or Certificate focuses on environmental sustainability. Students gain understanding of the social science and history of environmental thought and movements; the science, engineering, policy and economics of environmental change; renewable energy; biodiversity and environmental degradation; the business and economics of sustainability, and environmental justice.

Scholarship funds are available to eligible UC Berkeley students who complete the Summer Minor in Sustainability.

A minimum of 15 units of coursework is required, which can be completed during one or two summers. Students must complete either Energy and Society ENE,RES W100 / ENE,RES C100 or Climate Change Economics ENE,RES C176 in addition to choosing electives from the list of approved courses below.

UC Berkeley undergraduates may elect to take either Energy and Society ENE,RES C100 or Climate Change Economics ENE,RES C176 during the summer or the fall terms.

All other elective courses will be offered during the summer only and are unique to summer. The courses Energy and Society and Water and Sanitation Justice are offered in a web-based format during the summer and can be taken remotely.

Please note in Summer 2020, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, all courses will be offered remotely.

Core Course (select one)

Course List
Code	Title	Units
ENE,RES C100	Energy and Society	4
ENE,RES W100	Energy and Society	4
ENE,RES C176	Climate Change Economics	4

Electives (select four)

Please consult with the Minor Advisor for a complete list of currently available and approved electives.

Course List
Code	Title	Units
ENE,RES W100	Energy and Society	4
ENE,RES 101	Ecology and Society	3
ENE,RES 170	Environmental Classics	3
ENE,RES 171	California Water	3
ENE,RES W174	Water and Sanitation Justice	3
ENE,RES C176	Climate Change Economics	4

Courses

Energy and Resources

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Spring 2012, Spring 2011
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Freshman Seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics may vary from department to department and semester to semester.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Enrollment limits are set by the faculty, but the suggested limit is 25.

Freshman and Sophomore Seminar: Complex Systems, Information Theory, and Big Data: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
Lectures and small group discussions focusing on topics of interest that vary from semester to semester.
Directed Group Study for Lower Division Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020
Supervised research on specific topics related to energy and resources.
Supervised Independent Studies for Freshmen and Sophomores: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
Energy sources, uses, and impacts: an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy in international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.
Energy and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2021 8 Week Session, Fall 2020, Summer 2020 8 Week Session
Energy sources, uses, and impacts: an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy in international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.
Energy and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2021 8 Week Session, Summer 2020 8 Week Session, Summer 2019 8 Week Session
This course introduces students to the many ways in which our lives are intertwined with the ecosystems around us. Topics will include ecological limits to growth, climate change and other threats to biodiversity, the value of ecosystem goods and services, the ecology of disease, ecotoxicology, the evolution of cooperation in ecosystems, industrial ecology, and the epistemology of ecology.
Ecology and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
Human disruption of biogeochemical and hydrological cycles; causes and consequences of climate change and acid deposition; transport and health impacts of pollutants; loss of species; radioactivity in the environment; and quantitative models to understand these environmental problems.
Quantitative Aspects of Global Environmental Problems: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
This course will teach students to build, estimate and interpret models that describe phenomena in the broad area of energy and environmental decision-making. Students leave the course as both critical consumers and responsible producers of data-driven analysis. The effort will be divided between (i) learning a suite of data-driven modeling and prediction tools (including linear model selection methods, classification and regression trees and support
Data, Environment and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021
Climate change is transforming our world in ways we are only beginning to understand, and in many ways we cannot yet imagine. The emerging theoretical and practical lenses of social and environmental justice (EJ) provide tools with which to examine and understand this new world. Using literature, media, and engaged field experiences, this course brings together the scholarship, scientific and engineering innovation, policy, literature and media, and activism around
Climate Justice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2021 8 Week Session, Summer 2020 8 Week Session, Summer 2019 8 Week Session
What is the history and evolution of environmental thinking and writing in the USA? How have certain ‘environmental classics’ shaped the way in which we think about nature, society and progress? Why did these become ‘classics’ and why/how did they influence environmental thought and policy? What is their relevance today? This course includes substantial reading assignments.
Environmental Classics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2021 8 Week Session, Summer 2020 8 Week Session, Summer 2019 8 Week Session
The story of water development in California provides compelling examples of water politics, the social and environmental consequences of redistributing water, and the relationships between water uses, energy, and climate.This course provides the historical, scientific, legal, institutional, and economic background needed to understand the social and ecological challenges of providing water for
California Water: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2021 8 Week Session, Summer 2020 8 Week Session, Summer 2019 8 Week Session
This course will explore the many manifestations of water and sanitation justice and injustice on interlocking scales (i.e. local, national, transnational) while illustrating analytical ideas connecting to a range of social processes including claims for human rights, deprivation and exclusion, urbanization and infrastructure development, and privatization of land and water. We will look at various
Water and Sanitation Justice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
This course introduces students to water policy in developing countries. It is a course motivated by the fact that over one billion people in developing countries have no access to safe drinking water, three billion do not have sanitation facilities, and many millions of small farmers do not have reliable water supplies to ensure a healthy crop. Readings and discussions will cover: the problems of water access and use in developing countries;
Water and Development: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Summer 2021 8 Week Session, Fall 2020
This course is a self-contained introduction to the economics of climate change. Climate change is caused by a large variety of economic activities, and many of its impacts will have economic consequences. Economists have studied climate change for more than two decades, and economic arguments are often powerful in policy decisions. The course will familiarize students with these arguments and equip them with the tools to participate
Climate Change Economics: Read More [+]

Objectives & Outcomes

Course Objectives: The course will start with a brief review of the science of climate change, discuss scenarios of economic growth and the greenhouse gas emissions caused by economic activities and investigate various emission reduction opportunities and their economic costs. A significant amount of time will be spent on studying the impacts of climate change, their economic evaluation and how adaptation can lower the costs of climate damages.

We will then study various theoretical frameworks economists have developed that answer the question how estimates about the costs and benefits of climate policy can be combined to find “good” climate policies. We then study three more specialized topics that turn out to be of great importance when analyzing climate change policy: first, how do we compare costs and benefits of generations that live many centuries apart? Second, how do we design climate policy when our projections of both the costs and the benefits of climate policy are highly uncertain? And third, how can equity considerations be accounted for in an economic assessment of climate change policy? The course will close with a look at international cooperation on climate policy and why it has been so difficult to agree on effective treatises that implement climate change policy.

Student Learning Outcomes: Students will also have gained insight into the practical aspects of modeling the economics of climate change by building a simple integrated assessment model in Excel. They will be able to use that model to do simple analysis of climate change policy themselves.
Students will be familiar with the tools economists use to analyze climate change policy. They will have studied empirical estimates of the costs and benefits of climate policy and have an understanding of the analytical issues that drive research on the economics of climate change.

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of laboratory per week

Summer: 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture and 4 hours of laboratory per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Energy and Resources Group/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.

Instructor: Anthoff

Also listed as: ENVECON C176/IAS C176

Climate Change Economics: Read Less [-]

Terms offered: Fall 2016
Economists through history have explored economic and environmental interactions, physical limits to growth, what constitutes the good life, and how economic justice can be assured. Yet economists continue to use measures and models that simplify these issues and promote bad outcomes. Ecological economics responds to this tension between the desire for simplicity and the multiple perspectives needed to understand complexity in order to move toward sustainable, fulfilling, and just economies.
Ecological Economics in Historical Context: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2020 8 Week Session, Spring 2019, Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session
Critical, cross disciplinary analysis of specific issues or general problems of how people interact with environmental and resource systems. More than one section may be given each semester on different topics depending on faculty and student interest.
Seminar in Energy and Resources Issues: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021
Critical, data-driven analysis of specific issues or general problems of how people interact with environmental and resource systems. This course will teach students to build, estimate and interpret models that describe phenomena in the broad area of energy and environmental decision-making. More than one section may be given each semester on different topics depending on faculty and student interest.
Energy and Environmental Issues: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Fall 2018
Critical, data-driven analysis of specific issues or general problems of how people interact with environmental and resource systems. This course will teach students to build, estimate and interpret models that describe phenomena in the broad area of energy and environmental decision-making. More than one section may be given each semester on different topics depending on faculty and student interest.
Energy and Environmental Issues: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2021 8 Week Session
As corporations have grown in influence, concerns over their impact on people and the planet have also grown, pushing sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and the wider impact of business into the spotlight. This course focuses on business ethics, supply chains, resource constraints, labor issues, innovation, and environmental externalities, as well as the internal challenges, competitive pressures, external stakeholders, and other issues
Business, Sustainability, and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
Group studies of selected topics.
Directed Group Studies for Advanced Undergraduates: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020
Individual conferences.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Faculty and Instructors

Faculty

David Anthoff, Assistant Professor. Environmental economics, climate policy, integrated assessment models.
Research Profile

Duncan Callaway, Associate Professor. Modeling and control of aggregated storage devices, power management, and system analysis of energy technologies and their impact.
Research Profile

John Harte, Professor of the Graduate School. Global change, ecology, sustainability, energy policy, theoretical ecology, biodiversity.
Research Profile

Daniel M. Kammen, Professor. Public policy, nuclear engineering, energy, resources, risk analysis as applied to global warming, methodological studies of forecasting, hazard assessment, renewable energy technologies, environmental resource management.
Research Profile

Catherine Koshland, Professor. Air pollution, metals, energy, resources, environmental human health, mechanistic analyses of combustion products in flow reactors, control strategies in urban airsheds, pollutant formation, chlorinated hydrocarbons, particulates, industrial ecology.
Research Profile

Lara Kueppers, Associate Professor. Ecological responses and feedback to climate change, climate-ecosystem interactions in forests and agroecosystems, agriculture, climate change, ecology, forests, tropics.
Research Profile

Isha Ray, Associate Professor. Water and development, Gender, water and sanitation, technology and development, social science research methods .
Research Profile

Margaret S. Torn, Associate Adjunct Professor. Biodiversity, biogeochemistry, carbon cycle, climate change, ecology, ecosystem services .
Research Profile