PART 1:

SCENARIO:

“At COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015, Parties to the UNFCCC reached a landmark agreement to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future.

The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Paris Agreement requires all Parties to put forward an outline and communicate their post2020 climate actions through nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead.”

This project involves researching a chosen country’s plan, and hence the amendments, to the regulatory framework that reflects its ambition for reducing emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, taking into account the country’s domestic circumstances and capabilities. Using theories of economics such as the demand and supply model, explain the impact of the changing market conditions within your chosen country’s economy as it aligns with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. 

In the required group report, you describe the regulatory framework of your chosen country’s energy/electricity sector pre-December 2015, and the changes in the that framework necessitated by complying with the Paris Agreement post-2020. In light of your discussions, comment on whether the approach taken by your chosen economy to meet the nationally determined contributions (NDC) is consistent with economic principles of regulation discussed in the subject.

You are required to:

- Select one of the parties (country/economy) that have signed the Paris Agreement.

- For your chosen economy describe how regulation works in the energy/electricity sector before signing the Paris Agreement (pre - December 2015)

- For your chosen economy describe what steps have been taken to restructure the regulatory framework of the energy/electricity sector to align with the objectives of the Paris Agreement post-2020.

- You may provide the Nationally determined contributions (NDC) for your chosen economy to show how it intends to achieve the wider objectives of the Paris Agreement.

- Critically analyse the impacts of government policy and external shocks on markets because of the restructuring, include in your response the scope of government intervention in tackling this issue.

- Represent and explain fundamental economic concepts using text, graphs, diagrams, etc.

PART 2:

REFLECTION:

Critically reflect upon the role you have played during the group assignment this semester. In your observations, comment upon the team dynamic, the role you have played and how your group’s performance may be improved. 

Your reflection must explore:

- The benefits of group work. Give an example.

- The challenges of group work. Give an example.

- Discuss how your group managed these challenges.

- What will you do differently the next time?

- Something that you learnt from the group that you probably wouldn’t have learnt working alone.