The course considers the concept of sustainable development, climate change and efficiency in the use of natural resources. To this aim, the main economic theoretical foundations are presented jointly with the fundamental practical issues of climate change, pollution, and sustainable development. The main market failures climate change and environmental pollution generate, externalities and public goods, are presented. The main theoretical and actual policy instruments used to face such phenomena, such as emission tax, emission abatement subsidy, marketable permit instruments, are deeply analyzed from both a normative and a positive point of view. Finally, environmental project appraisal and empirical methods for valuing the environment are introduce