Environmental Policy Analysis Specialization

For students who seek to understand and employ analytical frameworks that apply to a broad range of environmental issue areas and are critical for strategic environmental policy within organizations that develop, analyze, practice and evaluate environmental and natural resource management.

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    Note that a capstone course used to fulfill the MEM capstone requirement cannot also be used toward fulfilling an MEM Specialization requirement; a capstone course taken once cannot be used to fulfill multiple requirements. Learn more about YSE capstone courses by visiting the MEM Capstone page.

    Program Courses

    Core

    Two courses required.

    Course 1

    Required for all Environmental Policy Analysis students.
    Course Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Fall Spring
    ENV 834
    Environmental Economics and Policy
      Faculty

    Course 2

    Choose one of these two courses.
    Course Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Fall Spring
    ENV 821
    Environmental Policymaking: From Local to Global
    Sanford
    M,W 1:00-2:20
     
    ENV 824
    Environmental Law and Policy
      Klee

    Elective

    Students must take at least one course from each of the following two bins

    Economic and Quantitative Methods for Policy Analysis

    Course Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Fall Spring
    ENV 617
    Real World Environmental Data Science
      Grewal
    Tentative
    ENV 730
    Environmental Data Science in R: Introduction to Data Integration and Machine Learning
    Malone
    Th 2:30-5:20
     
    ENV 757
    Data Exploration and Analysis
    Reuning-Scherer
    Tu,Th 9:00-10:15
    Reuning-Scherer
    ENV 758
    Multivariate Data Analysis in the Environmental Sciences
      Reuning-Scherer
    ENV 795
    Nature as Capital: Merging Ecological and Economic Models
      Fenichel
    ENV 800
    Energy Economics and Policy Analysis
      Gillingham
    ECON 132a
    Econometrics and Data Analysis II
           
    ECON 136b
    Econometrics
           
    ECON 545a
    Microeconomics
           
    ECON 558a
    Statistics and Econometrics
           

    Environmental and Natural Resource Law and Governance

    Course Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Fall Spring
    ENV 639
    Food Systems and Climate Services
    Hernandez-Aguilera
    Tu,Th 10:30-11:50
     
    ENV 682
    Environmental Justice/Water Justice
    Torres
    M,W 10:30-11:50
     
    ENV 696
    YFF:Tribal Forestry:
      Dunning
    ENV 761
    Negotiating International Agreements: The Case of Climate Change
    Biniaz
    M 1:30-3:20
     
    ENV 816
    Electric Utilities: an Industry in Transition
    Rhodes
    Th 1:00-3:50
     
    ENV 823
    Energy Law and Policy (Follows Law School Calendar)
      Faculty
    Tentative
    ENV 831
    Urban Planning Strategies for Sustainable Development
    Salazar Miranda
    Th 1:00-3:50
     
    ENV 840
    Climate Change Policy and Perspectives
    Klee
    M,W 1:00-2:20
     
    ENV 854
    Food Systems Transformation and Accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals in the Global South
    Omilola
    Th 2:30-5:20
     

    Additional Electives

    Two courses.

    Environmental Policy Analysis students should also develop expertise in some specific environmental or natural resource problem or issue (e.g., renewable energy, water resources, environmental health, forest management, biological diversity, climate change, conservation, etc.). Students are encouraged to look at other specializations to develop this two-course sequence (e.g., Energy and the Environment, Ecosystem Conservation and Management, Water Resource Management, and others). The core requirements of other specializations are a natural fit here. Students may also develop the sequence based on their own interests, but should make the case that the two courses are consistent with developing an area of topical concentration. The two-course sequence must be approved by the specialization coordinator prior to the student’s last semester.
    LC Policy Illustration

    Learning Community

    There is a corresponding “Learning Community” for each specialization, where anyone interested in the topic can find related news, spotlights, colleagues, and events.

     

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    Faculty Coordinator

    Staff Manager