FSR

Xavier Labandeira, Director of Florence School of Regulation Climate, introduces the presentation of the book ‘EU Climate Policy EXPLAINED’, co-edited by Peter Vis and Jos Delbeke.

This book explains the EU’s climate policies in an accessible way, to demonstrate the step-by-step approach that has been used to develop these policies, and the ways in which they have been tested and further improved in the light of experience. It shows that there is no single policy instrument that can bring down greenhouse gas emissions, but the challenge has been to put a jigsaw of policy instruments together that is coherent, delivers emissions reductions, and is cost-effective.

In view of the forthcoming 2015 UN Climate Change conference in Paris, this book is of great interest for academics and policy makers alike.

Adrien de Hauteclocque is a Legal Secretary (Référendaire) of Judge M. van der Woude at the Court of Justice of the European Union (General Court), Luxembourg, and an Adviser of the Loyola de Palacio Chair.

Here he is interviewed by the Director of the Florence School, Jean-Michel Glachant, on the topics discussed at the FSR Fifth Policy Advisory Council which brought together renowned academics, experts from leading energy companies as well as representatives from the European Commission, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs).

Recorded 6 November 2015, Florence, Italy

“we talked this morning about the long term import gas contracts… we have a problem with this contract… I think it is fair to say they have very ambiguous effects both on competition and on security of supply, sometimes they are good, sometimes they are bad…”

“maybe we should think about introducing some kinds of ex-ante notification mechanisms so that there would be some level of control”

FSR Fifth Policy Advisory Council report by Jean-Michel Glachant

The FSR Policy Advisory Council is the bi-annual exclusive meeting where the FSR tests new ideas and research proposals with a small selected audience of FSR donors, academics, regulators and representatives from EU Institutions.

Held under Chatham House Rules, the PAC is attended by significant players in the European Energy Industry. In this podcast, Jean-Michel Glachant, Director of the Florence School reveals some extracts from the meeting.

Recorded in Florence 6 November 2015

“…it is very likely that the TSO business in the power industry, the transmission business in the power industry, will enter or is entering a complete revolution.”

Jorge Vasconcelos, former regulator of Portugal and co-founder of CEER (Council of European Energy Regulators) talks about the evolution of European energy system – in the light of its decentralisation or “localisation”.

Interview by Jean-Michel Glachant, Director of the Florence School

Recorded at the FSR’s 5th Policy Advisory Council on 6 November 2015

“The application of these [digital] technologies will produce very important and substantial change”

“Don’t forget that every electricity consumer is connected with 250 million consumers in Europe”

Prof. Karsten Neuhoff is Head of the Climate Policy Department at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). In this interview by the FSR Research and Policy Coordinator Ilaria Conti, Prof. Neuhoff answers questions on the evolution of electricity balancing in Europe in light of the current and upcoming challenges. And, one big question: can we think of a single electricity Balancing market for Europe?

Recorded on 1 November 2015, Milan

“a common approach on balancing will be very important, because ultimately that reflects a common approach of operating the system, and only if we find a common way of operating the system then we can exchange information accurately between TSOs and run the system precisely”

“Starting from the past, European efforts had been initially on the day-ahead, and now to some extent on the intra-day market, and very often defining the interphases between countries. That is sufficient if you have stable flows in a conventional power system. The future…”

Professor Ariel Ezrachi is the Slaughter and May Professor of Competition Law and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.

Here he talks to Nicholas Barrett about the algorithms after our money.

"The use of a single algorithm could have a de-facto horizontal impact on pricing."

"We also reflect on the possibility of using algorithms to facilitate tacit collusion."

"We discussed the possibility of almost perfect price discrimination, the possibility for platforms to make use of data in order to try to second guess the reservation price for customers and target them in a way that would optimise profit."

"When we speak about big data and energy, the questions are whether the ability of the supplier to gather information, even through the meters, as to the behaviour of the customers and their usage could then be leveraged in order to gain an advantage over others."

Professor Mats Nilsson, an economist at Luleå University of Technology.

Here he talks to Nicholas Barrett about the transition to renewable energy and Europe's "extreme focus on renewables".

"There is a good intention behind the support for renewables, but we have to remember that the support for renewables was for a sustainability goal,

but that has become mixed with the co2 goal."

"The manufacturing industry is now starting to leave Europe as a protest against the rising electricity costs.

That comes as a shock, I think, to policy makers and industry members alike."

"We don't have to continue, we can take a deep breath, we can phase out the renewable support we have."

http://florence-school.eu/event/fsr-climate-annual-conference-2015/?instance_id=302

Claudio Marcantonini, is the deputy director of FSR Climate.

Here he talks to Nicholas Barrett about the first 10 years of the European Union's emission Trading Scheme and what it means to the rest of the world.

"The EU ETS did not have a strong negative impact on the economy,

there was no negative impact in terms of production, job losses or relocation of industries"

"There is no evidence of carbon leakage, we have reduced emissions in Europe but not at the expense of increased emissions in other parts of the world."

"It shows that a carbon price is feasible and that you can build a policy that puts a price on emissions on a level the size of Europe."

http://florence-school.eu/event/two-day-executive-course-to-master-electricity-markets-18-19-january-2016

Fabien Roques, Senior Vice President with the Economics Consultancy Compass Lexecon and Associate Professor at University Paris-Dauphine, talks about the FSR's new 2-day Executive Course to master Electricity Markets.

The new training programme covers many topics, one of them is the capacity mechanisms.

http://fsr.eui.eu

Jean Tirole, Nobel Laureate and Professor of Economics at the Toulouse School of Economics explains what we can expect from COP21, the UN Climate conference taking place in Paris in December. An interview by Jean-Michel Glachant, Director of the Florence School of Regulation and Holder of the Loyola de Palacio Chair.

Recorded 9 September 2015

An interview by Jean-Michel Glachant, Director of the Florence School of Regulation and Holder of the Loyola de Palacio Chair.

Recorded at the Tenth Conference on The Economics of Energy and Climate Change, from the Toulouse School of Economics, Toulouse, France.

http://www.tse-fr.eu/conferences/2015-tenth-conference-economics-energy-and-climate-change

“promises are non-binding, so they are just promises. We have seen in the past, from Kyoto to Copenhagen, that actually the countries don’t abide by their promises.”

“If you put some effort into reducing your pollution, you’re not even sure if it will have any impact”

“We have to develop satellites which are going to measure the pollution of every country so you make countries accountable”

“Efficiency will require that the carbon price is the same in every country of the world”

“If the carbon price is not enforced in countries you need to have WTO sanctions”