#3 The case for CCUS in EU industrial decarbonisation with Christopher Jones by Florence School of Regulation

The 'FSR Policy Briefcase' Season 2 episode 2 covers "TEN-E", the EU policy for planning and building cross-border energy networks, in light of the Draghi reports recommendations. In particular, it explores the TEN-E's past achievements, its current role, and potential areas for improvement. For this episode, hosts Leonardo Meeus and Emma Menegatti are joined by Catharina Sikow-Magny from the Florence School of regulation. The conversation builds on Catharina's recently published Policy Brief, "Making TEN-E into a truly European project".

The Draghi report identifies energy network investments as critical to Europe. However, the group discussed how it fails to fully acknowledge the already existing TEN-E framework in its recommendations. The discussion moreover explored the different routes for improvement including EU funding mechanisms, regional coordination, and permitting processes.

See below for a link to the original Policy Brief

https://fsr.eui.eu/publications/?handle=1814/77413

This is the first episode of a series focused on the findings of the Horizon Europe project CAPABLE (ClimAte Policy AcceptaBiLity Economic framework). The aim of this podcast series is to provide an overview of the CAPABLE project and draw attention to some particularly relevant findings.

In this first episode, we want to give a general overview of CAPABLE, highlighting the main topics we are going to touch on, focusing on its policy impacts and contribution. The guests are Silvia Pianta and Johannes Emmerling. Johannes is a Senior Scientist at the European Institute on Economics and Environment (EIEE). He co-leads its low-carbon pathways unit and he is the scientific coordinator of the Horizon Europe project CAPABLE. His main research areas include climate change and energy economics, risk and uncertainty, and welfare economics and development. Silvia is a Scientist at EIEE and the deputy coordinator of CAPABLE. Her research focuses on environmental policy and politics. She investigates the determinants of environmental attitudes and behaviours, climate policy preferences, public attention to climate change, and the impact of environmental change on political behaviour.

CAPABLE is a research project funded by the Horizon Europe Programme under grant agreement No 101056891. It provides robust, resilient and actionable recommendations for the design of socially and economically acceptable climate policy measures for 2030 and beyond, examining experiences, policy design and implementation solutions to identify strategies that can enable a successful transition. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union.

More info on CAPABLE: https://capableclimate.eu/

Making Capacity Markets Work for Energy Security and Market Efficiency

In the first episode of the FSR Policy Briefcase - Season 2, hosts Leonardo Meeus and James Kneebone are joined by Emma Menegatti (FSR) to explore how capacity markets in the European electricity sector can be streamlined for better security of supply and market efficiency. Building on Emma's recent Policy Brief, the discussion unpacks the fundamentals of capacity mechanisms—what they are, why they matter, and the key reforms underway. The episode also highlights how relaxing cross-border requirements could enhance their effectiveness.

See below for a link to the original Policy Brief:

https://fsr.eui.eu/publications/?handle=1814/77492

Interviewed by the FSR team (Lea Heinrich and Chiara Canestrini), Simone Borghesi, Director of the FSR Climate area, and former Commissioner Andris Piebalgs share their insights from Baku, Azerbaijan, where they attended the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29).

The ninth episode of the ‘FSR Policy Briefcase’ breaks down Ursula von der Leyen's Political Guidelines for her next term as European Commission President.

In this episode, regular hosts Leonardo Meeus and James Kneebone explain how the Political Guidelines might impact European energy and climate policy going forward, offer some of their views and interpretations on the details, and reflect on what insights previous episodes of the 'Policy Briefcase' can provide in understanding the next 5 years of energy and climate policy in the EU. They also point towards future Policy Briefs from the FSR that relate to key themes in von der Leyen's manifesto.

The Political Guidelines can be found here: https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/e6cd4328-673c-4e7a-8683-f63ffb2cf648_en?filename=Political%20Guidelines%202024-2029_EN.pdf

The eighth episode of the ‘FSR Policy Briefcase’ breaks down the subject of 'contracts for difference' or 'CfD's' in the renewable electricity sector and explores some of the ways that innovative designs can help accelerate the energy transition.

For this episode, regular hosts Leonardo Meeus and James Kneebone are joined by part-time FSR Professor and full-time DTU Professor, Lena Kitzing. The conversation takes as a point of departure the recent publication of Lena's Technical Report on this subject, co-authored with Anne Held, Malte Gephart, Fabian Wagner, Vasilios Anatolitis, and Corinna Klessmann.

This episode builds on our previous two episodes with Leigh Hancher and Jean-Michel Glachant, which focused on different kinds of public and private 'long-term contracts' in general, including CfD's. In this conversation we discuss the history of CfD's, their relationship to other forms of long-term contracts and incentives within the renewable energy space, as well as the role of 'two-sided' CfD's in mitigating the damage of the recent energy crisis. Looking to the future, Lena outlines some other technologies where she feels CfD's might prove useful, including for energy storage, as well as sharing some of her views on potential future design innovations for the renewables sector!

The full report can be found here: https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/76700;jsessionid=C6C7EADB8A166005F29DFD28A8AFBB44

The seventh episode of the ‘FSR Policy Briefcase’ unpacks the subject of 'long-term contracts' in the electricity sector and explores some of the ways that a fresh look at this tool could help deliver the energy transition.

For this episode, regular hosts Leonardo Meeus and James Kneebone are joined by part-time Professor of FSR Jean-Michel Glachant. The conversation builds on the recent publication of his Technical Report on this subject, co-authored with Guillaume Dezobry, Leigh Hancher, and Emma Menegatti.

This episode follows last month's 'part 1' episode recorded with Leigh Hancher on the same subject. Part 2 focuses broadly on the application of long-term contracts, or 'LTCs' as they are more commonly referred to, as well as some of what Jean-Michel considers to be the limitations and unknowns for LTCs and their role in bringing security and competitiveness to European industry. We learn about how LTCs could have helped during the previous energy crisis, and travel back in time even further to 2006 to hear Jean-Michels views on the 'Sector Inquiry' he contributed to at the time, and how those experiences relate to present day.

The full report can be found here: cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1…ence=1&isAllowed=y

In this episode we speak to Dr. Sonja Peterson, Senior Researcher at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. We discuss the implications of introducing an EU ETS 2 for buildings and road transport in terms of welfare effects, predicted prices, and the future role of the land use, land use change and forestry sector (LULUCF). The interview was led by Marie Raude and Lea Heinrich, Research Associates at the Climate Team of the Florence School of Regulation, and recorded during the LIFE COASE workshop on the role of carbon markets in reaching carbon neutrality which took place in June 2024.

The sixth episode of the ‘FSR Policy Briefcase’ unpacks the subject of 'long-term contracts' in the electricity sector and explores some of the ways that a fresh look at this tool could help deliver the energy transition.

For this episode, regular hosts Leonardo Meeus and James Kneebone are joined by part-time Professor of FSR Leigh Hancher. The conversation builds on the recent publication of her Technical Report on this subject, co-authored with Guillaume Dezobry, Jean-Michel Glachant, and Emma Menegatti. This is part one of a two-part series on this report.

This first episode focuses on the definition and relevance of long-term contracts, or 'LTCs' as they are more commonly referred to, as well as some of what Leigh considers to be limitations or missed opportunities in the previous framing and application of these agreements in Europe in the past. We learn about the different kinds of LTCs, their uses, some important case studies shaping their governance, and how some other major global economies have successfully framed LTCs differently. Towards the end of the episode, we begin to talk about the implications of a fresh look at LTCs for driving the competitiveness and decarbonisation of European industry, an area of the report we will cover in more detail in part two next month.

The full report can be found here: https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/76880/RSC_TR_2024_05.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y