Bruegel - Improving economic policy’s Post

Europe’s power sector is decarbonising with cheap wind and solar, while clean technologies in the transport and heating sectors are becoming more affordable. Modelling by the Commission and academia demonstrates the technical feasibility of rapid decarbonisation in a few decades. Yet many real-world risks threaten Europe’s 2040 ambitions. Conall Heussaff writes about what the EU can do to manage those risks.

📢 Upcoming Event! 🌍 Unlocking trillions of climate finance at COP29: A new quantified goal of climate finance  📅 15 October 11:00-12:30 Join us for a panel discussion focusing on the economic case for scaling up finance to support decarbonization in EMDEs with: ➡ Heather Grabbe, Senior fellow, Bruegel   ➡ Alissa M. Kleinnijenhuis, Non-resident fellow, Bruegel ➡ Yasmine Moezinia, Program Director, Sequoia Climate Foundation ➡ Alessandra Sgobbi, Head of Unit for climate finance, EU Environment and Climate ➡ Thouraya Triki, Director, International partners, European Investment Bank (EIB)   🔗 Register now to watch the livestream or join on-site! https://lnkd.in/dk-QUkad

🎙 Europe’s Green Global Reach 'How can we make sure that that as we are entering this brave new world, that we are in fact creating the right conditions for those trusted partnerships, that will not view our policies as a neo-colonialist effort to bring European altruism in its own interests upon the rest of the world. And to me, it really is about making sure that we're having regular, deep conversations with our partners about how we can shape this brave new world together, how we're providing them the capacity that they need to understand and to co-design and to co-implement these plans that we have in mind. The Just Energy Transition Partnerships are an example of that. They're still very new in terms of our ability to roll them out, to raise the level of resources necessary to make a difference, to co-design with another major economy, their energy transition, is something that I don't think that we've ever seen tried before in the way that we're trying to do it, for example, and helping South Africa and Indonesia to transition away from a heavy dependance on coal to a renewables based economy. So it's going to be a very dynamic space. We need to approach it with a great deal of humility and modesty, obviously driven by that categorical imperative to avoid dangerous climate change and to get to net-zero as quickly as possible. But it needs some guardrails and some boundaries around them. Humility and experimentation are one of them.' Listen to the full episode with Rebecca Christie, Simone Tagliapietra, Cecilia Trasi and Jacob Werksman at the link below: https://lnkd.in/e_XpAbug

🎙 Europe’s Green Global Reach 'There is increased skepticism and more backlash in third countries in reaction to the implementation of domestic policies. For example, you mentioned the carbon pricing. With CBAM, we could clearly see that there is mounting concern in third countries what will it mean for them. It's obvious that countries that export a lot of the goods that are being touched by CBAM are going to be directly affected. But in truth we have developing countries like Mozambique who relies way more on exports of steel to fuel their own economies. They feel like they're kind of left out. Why? Because probably on the one side, there is not a clear communication on what CBAM really is going to mean for them, but also probably not the best synergy between what is essentially a trade and environmental or climate policy instrument and development policy instrument. So the challenge really is how to coordinate this, in a context that is way more tense, that is putting more to the test of the benevolence of Europe in third countries. Listen to the full episode with Rebecca Christie, Simone Tagliapietra, Cecilia Trasi and Jacob Werksman at the link below: https://lnkd.in/e_XpAbug

📢 Upcoming Event!  🌍 Europe‘s Digital Future. Lessons from the past  📅 17 October 13:00-14:00 Join us for a panel discussion on Europe’s digital future! We’ll explore lessons from 40 years of digital policymaking and discuss what more needs to be done to ensure Europe is ready for the digital age. Don’t miss it! 💻 ➡ Erkki Liikanen, former Governor of the Bank of Finland, Chairman of the Board, Bruegel  ➡ Detlef Eckert, former European Commission Director and author of "40 Years of European Digital Policies" book 🔗 Register now to watch the livestream or join on-site! https://lnkd.in/dgt9Fe4K

There are four risks that could derail progress towards the EU's 2040 climate target In this paper, Conall Heussaff, Gunnar Luderer, Robert Pietzcker Johannes Emmerling, Rupert Way, Renato Rodrigues and Severin Reissl make recommendations to address each one https://lnkd.in/erbPDjxD

🎙 Europe’s Green Global Reach 'It's extremely important to remember that, it is thanks to the open trade economy we had over the last decades that major achievements have been done in the space of renewable energy. We wouldn't have today that competitive solar PV we have, if not due to a mix, not planned necessarily but spontaneous, of innovation in the US, market and demand construction in Europe, thanks to very generous subsidies and the manufacturing scale-up in China. So these interaction between the three made it possible, one way or the other to slash costs by achieving economies of scale. Now, if we go down the road of protectionism with trade wars on solar panels, electric cars and all the other technologies we need for the transition, that will increase the cost of this transition globally. Particularly at the expense of those developing countries that can already today, hardly afford these technologies. So avoiding a trade war in this space is of existential importance. And that's where I think the EU can have a space to try to foster a plurilateral agreement on subsidies and tariffs when it comes to clean technologies.' Listen to the full episode with Rebecca Christie, Simone Tagliapietra, Cecilia Trasi and Jacob Werksman at the link below: https://lnkd.in/e_XpAbug

🧩 Energy and climate cooperation has mutual benefits for the #UK and #EU, the obstacles are political 💧As the North Sea becomes a major energy resource for Europe, the physical security of infrastructure will become increasingly important for energy security 💣 Explosions on the Nord Stream pipeline and damage to energy infrastructure in the Baltics demonstrate the material risks Read the full Analysis authored by Conall Heussaff, Ben McWilliams and Simone Tagliapietra at the link below ⤵ https://lnkd.in/eeHVhhxd

📣STARTING NOW! 📌 The Power of Perspective: long-term strategies for a resilient Europe Adopting a long-term perspective – can Europe collectively tackle rapid change? Speakers include: ➡ Enrico Letta, President, Jacques Delors Institute ➡ Bernard Attali, Senior advisor, August Debouzy and EQT ➡ Heather Grabbe, Bruegel Senior fellow 🔗 Tune in to watch the live stream: https://lnkd.in/dpQie5Ar