Environmental Policy with Economics Personal Statement

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

Witnessing clouds of bushfire smoke blowing into my home city of Melbourne, Australia during the 2019-2020 Black Summer is what prompted my fascination with human economic activities and their impact on our lives. I believe that economics is the key to understanding and solving the current climate crisis. Studying economics and the environment at university would enable me to delve into current economic systems and how they can be improved.

The theme of innovation present throughout the agroforestry experiments inspired me to read the book Doughnut Economics, in which Kate Raworth dissects outdated economic thinking. It introduced me to the idea of a socially and ecologically stable economy 'not growing, but thriving'. Keen to critically assess this view, I read the research article Decoupling Economic Growth from Fossil Fuel Use by Katarzyna Frodym et al., which examines economic decoupling from fossil fuels in 141 countries. I encountered evidence that, regardless of a country’s level of development, economic growth currently requires an increase in fossil fuel use. However, my A level economics studies of long-run economic growth and the impact of innovation lead me to believe that this is not an immutable fact and sustainable growth is a future possibility. Studying economics and the environment at university would give me the opportunity to understand the nuances of these complex issues.

Studying economics and the environment at university would broaden my knowledge of how regulation can contribute to economic and environmental health.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

Pursuing my interest in this topic, I completed an EPQ centred on the question ‘What are the benefits of multinational corporations reducing their environmental footprint?’, where I evaluated the ways in which multinational corporations financially benefit from reducing the environmental damage they cause. In my research, I investigated topics such as carbon tax, industrial agriculture, transportation and brand image. An article I found particularly useful was ‘The Costs and Benefits of Agroforestry to Farmers’, published in the World Bank Research Observer, which explores the profitability and sustainability of twenty-one agroforestry projects.

Completing the MOOC ‘Game Theory’ helped me further develop my mathematical skills, particularly in the fields of matrices, combinatorics, probabilities, and models. I also studied a variety of games and how to calculate their Nash equilibria. However, the aspect of the course that I found most interesting was its exploration of coalitional games and how to distribute their payoffs using either the Shapley value formula or the core formula. This led me to consider how game theory models can apply to the constant changes and ideological clashes in the policymaking sphere. I was able to better understand this connection by reading the article ‘Game Theory and Environmental Policy’ by Alfred Andres, which investigates how global environmental disputes can be modelled as an infinitely repeating prisoner’s dilemma game.

The MOOC ‘Financial Markets’ deepened my knowledge of how various markets operate. I focused on systems such as banks, mortgages, the stock exchange, and the futures market. I also observed striking parallels between the need for regulation of economic practices in post-Depression America and the issues we are currently facing in terms of environmental policies.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

Joining my school’s Combined Cadet Force and attaining the rank of Staff Sergeant helped me develop strong leadership and teamwork skills. I was then able to apply these skills as one of my school’s Eco Representatives, helping the school earn its Green Flag through planting hedges and introducing 315 native trees through a collaborative effort on the part of the entire Eco Committee.

Universities applied to:

• LSE
• Edinburgh
• University of Bath
• Glasgow
• St Andrews

Grades achieved:

• A - Maths
• A - Geography
• A - Economics
• A - EPQ

How personal statements have changed?

The current personal statement format, with three 'scaffolding' questions, was introduced by Ucas in September 2025. This personal statement was submitted before then, using the old essay-style format. It has been carefully edited into the three-question format, with all of the original wording kept.

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