Discussing policy underpinnings and implications of regulating carbon dioxide emissions for introducing technology policy considerations to engineering students

Possessing strong analytical skills and conversant with both the working principles and application areas of modern technology, engineers are uniquely placed to contribute to the policy formulation process concerning impacts of technology use on society, and devising regulatory tools for its mitigation. However, as societal impacts of technology use and their associated policy implications occur over a range of time, spatial and severity scales, a multi-dimensional framework is necessary for vertical and lateral analysis of mutually interacting intangible factors. This mode of thinking, unfortunately, is not familiar to engineering students whose education focuses on characterizing trade-offs between various quantifiable factors for overcoming design constraints. In this communication, an initial attempt at bridging the gap in the general lack of exposure, amongst engineering students, of understanding and analyzing myriad interacting intangible factors in thinking about technology’s impacts on the socioeconomic sphere, and the relative merits of possible regulatory approaches for mitigating undesired impacts is described. Specifically, various aspects of regulating carbon dioxide emissions, such as the scientific basis for regulatory action and the likely socioeconomic impacts on diverse stakeholders (i.e., individual, community and industry) were introduced to chemical engineering students. Student feedback revealed that a sizeable fraction found the approach refreshing. However, many students were frustrated by the abstract and fuzzy nature of policy considerations; thus, presenting an area in need of pedagogical research and innovations.