Clean Electricity Performance Program
For the purposes of this assignment, a policy is defined as a specific course of action adopted by a government (or governments) or groups involved in the governance of climate change and/or the impacts of climate change. The policy does not have to be “adopted” yet (e.g., a proposed carbon tax)—it can also be a course of action or series of potential alternatives contemplated by a government or regulatory body given a problem or issue that needs to be solved. For example, the “Green New Deal” is a term used to describe a suite of potential government policies and programs to reduce the U.S.’s GHG emissions and promote a transition to renewable energy—but most of the specific policies contemplated under this umbrella are not yet authorized or enacted. Even so, any of the GHG mitigation or energy transition policies contemplated under the Green New Deal are good examples of policies worthy of research to answer a variety of questions such as how do these policy proposals work? Will they be effective at lowering GHG emissions? Who does a policy benefit or harm and how? Other examples of climate policies or policy questions you might investigate for this assignment could include: • Carbon tax proposals; • Cap and trade systems and carbon markets; • Vehicle efficiency standards laws and regulations; • Clean energy standards; • Building energy efficiency regulations; • Any state- or local-level administrative rule or action; Climate Policy Briefing Paper – 2 • Any pending or decided lawsuit or court case relevant to governance of GHG emissions and/or human capacity to adapt to climate change; • Any specific section of or rule promulgated under the U.S. Clean Air Act with implications for GHG regulation; • Any pending federal, state, or international legislation with implications for regulating GHG emissions and/or addressing impacts of climate change; and • There are many, many other possibilities both domestic and international; I am open to accommodating your academic needs and interests in this assignment, so please come talk to me if your idea doesn’t necessarily fit with the above examples.
Clean Electricity Performance Program
Assignment Components and Due Dates Below you will find complete descriptions for the various components of this assignment. I have structured this assignment so that you will receive meaningful feedback throughout the semester in an effort to help you craft a final product you can be proud of and that may have some use beyond our class (e.g., writing sample used for a graduate school application or submission of your policy brief to the Montana State Legislature, City of Missoula, and/or an interested NGO). All assignments should be submitted to the corresponding links on the “Assignments” page in Moodle by 11:59pm Mountain Time on the due date. Assignment due dates are as follows: Topic Proposal: Tuesday September 28 th (10 points) References: Thursday October 14 th (15 points) Annotated Outline: Thursday November 4 th (20 points) Peer-reviews: Thursday November 18 th (15 points) Final Paper: Friday December 10th (40 points) Total: 100 points Assignment Part I: Select an appropriate climate policy to analyze (DUE Sep 28 th – 10 points) The first part of this assignment is for you to pick a climate policy to research and analyze. You will submit to me a formal proposal so that I can provide each of you with guidance on how best to narrow, expand, or otherwise approach your topic. Using the examples above or integrating your own interests in different aspects of climate governance and policy, determine what policy, policy question, or climate change policy-related issue you would like to analyze for this final assignment. Please submit, via Moodle, a no more than 1-page, single-spaced proposal that contains the following sections and corresponding information: 1. Your name; 2. Brief description of the climate policy (pending or current), body of policy, or policy question to be analyzed; Climate Policy Briefing Paper – 3 3. Background information to briefly explain the policy and the climate change or adaptation management problem the policy attempts to address; 4. Statement of significance to explain why the chosen policy, body of policy, or policy question is ripe for investigation; what are the implications of this policy and why is it important to rigorously assess the policy now? 5. 2-3 potential sources of secondary information and/or primary data that would be relevant to review in an analysis of the chosen policy (be specific, provide full references including any relevant links to articles online. Assignment Part II: References (DUE Oct 14 th – 15 points)
Clean Electricity Performance Program
For this subpart of the assignment, please turn in via Moodle a list at least 10 references that you will use to support your research. These references should generally include a mixture of primary and secondary sources including policy documents, research reports, available data sets, law review articles, peer-reviewed articles, books, popular press, websites or online databases, etc. Please write 2-3 sentences for EACH reference explaining the information contained in the reference that is essential to your research and analysis AND how you will use this information in your policy briefing paper. Also, I would like you to write at least one sentence evaluating the source: explain whether the reference has any explicit or implicit bias (think about the origin of the source and/or its review process). Please cite your references using APA format (see details in the “Part V” description below). Assignment Part III: Annotated Outline (DUE Nov 4 th – 20 points) An annotated outline is an outline with the addition of “annotations” or notes, facts and other important pieces of information extracted from the references you have been reviewing (and continue to collect) to inform your final briefing paper and policy analysis. To receive full credit on this assignment (and more importantly to receive adequate feedback from me and your colleagues aimed at improving your final paper), you will need to ensure that your annotated outline contains the following: 1. A full outline of your paper, e.g., title, headings, subheadings. I want to see the proposed flow of your paper including your questions, arguments, discussion, and potential conclusions which can be preliminary pending your ongoing research (see “Part V” below for a full description of final required elements in the briefing paper); 2. Facts and information directly from your references applied strategically to support your outlined analysis and arguments (APA format for in-text citations); and 3. A full list of references cited (APA format, see below for details). I will provide an example annotated outline in class for your reference prior to this due date. Assignment Part IV: Peer review of your fellow students’ work (DUE Nov 18 th – 15 points) You will each read and review another student’s annotated outline and provide comments according to a specific rubric I will provide. These reviews will be anonymous, i.e. “double-blind peer-review.” Climate Policy Briefing Paper – 4 Assignment Part V: Final Paper (DUE Dec 10th – 40 points) Your final climate policy briefing paper should be around 3000 words (please do not exceed 3500 words, not including executive summary and references); at minimum, your paper must contain the following sections: 1. Executive Summary: a short, concise summary of what your paper is about, how you analyzed the selected policy, and your conclusions. This is similar to an abstract of a longer paper, targeted at a general audience as a way to let readers know (prior to reading the whole paper) if the paper contains information of interest. The Executive Summary should be no more than 250 words total. 2. Definition of the climate governance or policy problem in question.
Clean Electricity Performance Program
Why was this policy contemplated, enacted, decided, or promulgated? What was/is the problem that necessitates a solution? Essentially, this section contains the necessary background information. Help your readers understand the problem. In this section, I also want you to provide me with a short description of the political, geographic, and/or social context under which the policy was passed, decided, promulgated, or debated. This is critical information for understanding the motives and potential impacts of any particular climate policy. This section will require you to think outside the context of climate change specifically and perhaps into the history, politics, culture, and/or economics of a time and place. 3. Critical analysis of the climate policy or policy problem itself. What does the policy say, dictate, and/or decide? Read the inclusive primary text(s) that explain the policy under investigation including administrative guidelines, regulations, congressional legislation, and/or court orders, if applicable. What are the key operational aspects of the policy? How does the policy approach GHG mitigation and/or climate change adaptation? 4. The impact of the policy. What are the impacts (and/or potential impacts, for pending actions or decisions) under this policy? To answer this question, look for law review articles, peer-reviewed journal articles, Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports, and/or other government or NGO memos, statements, or reports that describe postpolicy research and/or analysis. This section can be a summary of previous findings on research conducted on this policy and/or your report on what the potential future impacts of this climate policy may be. This section could include: a. A summary of any previous research or analysis on the policy; b. A brief comparison of how policies in other geographical or political contexts (e.g. other states, regions, or nations) have approached similar problems; and c. Either (1) a mini-analysis of actual data (e.g., available demographic, GHG, or other data) that illuminates potential impacts of the policy; or (2) a thorough description of the types of data that you would need to perform a rigorous, detailed analysis of the impacts of this policy on people, atmosphere, and related resources (i.e., what you would need and how you would do it). Climate Policy Briefing Paper – 5 5. Policy Alternatives. Were any policy alternatives considered at the time this policy was debated and/or enacted? If so, please detail. Suggest and describe (2-3) potential alternatives to the climate policy under investigation. What other options exist to address the problem? Can you find evidence in your research of why the current or pending policy was selected as the preferred option? 6. Conclusions/Future recommendations. Given your thorough research on the selected climate policy up to this point, sum up your briefing paper with a set of future recommendations for adjusting or implementing the policy. Please support your recommendations with
Clean Electricity Performance Program
ClimatePolicy-briefing-paper_82618218
APA
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