By Anna Ginsburg, Dean’s Office Staff, School of Professional Studies, Columbia University
The advancement of the clean energy economy is critical to the future of our economies, political structures, and the environment. Navigating how to expand renewable energy capacity while also creating jobs and spurring economic growth is one of the most pressing issues in sustainability.
Industrial policy is a well-recognized way of targeting specific sectors to promote long-term growth. While there is a well-documented history of misallocation, malinvestment, and protectionism in some areas, recent decades have also seen massive growth in the clean energy sector, driven by effective industrial policy. Nowhere is this more evident than in China, where investments and policies in renewable energy, battery storage, high-voltage transmission, and electric mobility have transformed the country and the world.
A new field course this coming fall from Columbia’s M.S. in Sustainability Management program aims to dive into the world of green industrial policy through hands-on learning in China. In Green Industrial Policy: Field Course in Zhejiang, China, students will combine on-campus class time with a nine-day field tour to government agencies and companies in the clean energy economy. Students will spend the fall semester on campus, with travel to Zhejiang Province, China, taking place in January during the break between the fall and spring semesters. Located along China’s coastline, Zhejiang Province is home to the major cities of Hangzhou and Ningbo and is bordered by the megacity of Shanghai, making it an excellent location for studying China’s economy, policy, and development.
Led by professors Satyajit Bose and Guo Dong, this course will provide students with an opportunity to understand the rationale, methods, limitations, and challenges of green industrial policy and targeted government investment. Students will discuss examples of China’s green industrial policy, such as its experience with five-year plans, directed growth in key sectors, lessons learned, and how these can be applied outside the Chinese context.
The specific learning objectives for this course are to articulate the economic justifications for fostering targeted innovation in specific sectors; identify pitfalls, effective policy interventions, and the risks of unintended consequences; and offer firsthand experiences that allow students to draw inductive conclusions.
The course aims to foster students’ careers in the private sector, government sector, and international organizations, while also continuing to build Columbia’s international community.
M.S. in Sustainability Management program director Steven Cohen, and professors Satyajit Bose and Guo Dong share insight into the course.
What inspired the creation of this course, and why was China and/or Zhejiang Province chosen as the location for fieldwork?
Cohen: The Research Program in Sustainability Policy and Management has more than a decade of experience working in China on sustainability issues—largely led by Professor Guo Dong—and therefore has the connections and knowledge to field this course.
Guo: This course was inspired by the growing global debate around green industrial policy and the urgent question of how countries can accelerate decarbonization while remaining economically competitive.
Bose: There has been a reevaluation of the potential benefits of government intervention in general and industrial policy in particular since the global financial crisis. The developments in green industrial policy in China are in some way a culmination of new thinking on the need for state-directed climate policy. At the moment, if you want to learn how to enable and implement an energy transition, there is no better example to study.
How does this course build on or differ from other sustainability management curricula?
Guo: Most sustainability courses focus primarily on environmental outcomes or corporate strategy. This course examines sustainability through the lens of industrial policy, trade, technology, and economic development. Also, what makes this course distinctive is its integration of classroom learning with immersive field observation. Students will be able to move beyond abstract discussions and engage directly with the institutions, firms, and policy environments driving large-scale green transformation.
Cohen: This course focuses on the innovative green technologies developed in China that have resulted from an enlightened industrial policy. The course includes five weeks of conceptual orientation on our New York City campus, followed by a trip to China, where students will see how these new technologies have been developed and manufactured. It builds on the rest of our curriculum by providing visible, tangible examples of the realities of sustainability technologies.
What learning outcomes were most important to you in designing the course?
Guo: One of our goals is to help students critically evaluate both the promise and the limitations of green industrial policy. We want them to understand not only what appears successful, but also the governance challenges, trade-offs, and unintended consequences that can emerge. Equally important is helping students develop the ability to translate field observations into broader insights that may apply in other national contexts.
Cohen: The importance of industrial policy and the practicality of public-private partnerships, as well as the centrality of technological innovation to sustainability management.
How has your background informed your approach to teaching?
Bose: This course results from a combination of my experiences in observing the failures of decades-long aid-dominated development policy in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, my experience in M&A, differentiating between truly beneficial partnerships and rent-seeking collusion in the private sector, and finally, my study of regulation, public economics, game theory, and mechanism design.
Why is this course important at this time?
Cohen: While the U.S. federal government is retreating from sustainability, it is reassuring to see the success of another country that is successfully embracing renewable energy and electric vehicles, along with a wide variety of new technologies.
What kinds of students would benefit from this course?
Cohen: All of our students who want to see sustainability in action.
—
Additional information about the enrollment process will be shared soon. In the meantime, interested students are encouraged to join the waitlist.
About the Program
The Columbia University M.S. in Sustainability Management program, offered by the School of Professional Studies in partnership with the Climate School, provides students with cutting-edge policy and management tools to help public and private organizations and governments address environmental impacts and risks, pollution control, and remediation to achieve sustainability. The program is customized for working professionals and is offered as a full-time and part-time course of study.
The program fosters creativity and adaptability by equipping students with the skills to tackle real-world sustainability challenges through an interdisciplinary approach from the world’s premier sustainability academics, researchers, and practitioners. The up-to-the-minute curriculum and flexibility prepare graduates for careers in the dynamic and rapidly changing field of sustainability.
Learn more about the program here.
