Normally, I include climate change in my principles of microeconomics class and ignore it in principles of macroeconomics. Due to smoky air in Portland and painful news from the Caribbean, I decided to spend some time in class discussing the connection between economic growth in the US and our carbon emissions.
To do that, I simplified an Excel workbook I created for my intermediate macroeconomics class. It includes the Paris Accord targets for the US, an introduction to a simple Kaya decomposition, and a simulation students can use. The simulation allows them to see how population growth, average living standards, and carbon intensity interact to determine our total emissions. Here it is! Growth & GHG Emissions.mac