FSR

Laima Eicke is an Associate and former Research Fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center. Her research focuses on the decarbonisation pathways of countries worldwide, value chains of renewable energy technologies, and how both affect geopolitics. At the Belfer Center, Laima specifically focuses on green hydrogen. Laima is also a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam. She also gained work experience at the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Germany Ministry for International Affairs, two NGOs and in consultancy. Laima is a passionate observer and youth advocate in international climate negotiations

In this brief podcast, Research Associate Sofia Nicolai breaks down the Cover the Basics article on REMIT, in which we try to answer the questions: what is REMIT? Why do we need an EU framework for wholesale energy market transparency and integrity? Which obligations and prohibitions are set by REMIT and who is subject to them? Read more at https://fsr.eui.eu/eu-regulation-on-wholesale-energy-market-integrity-and-transparency-remit/

In this podcast, Guillaume Dezobry, partner at Fidal and senior lecturer in public law at Université d'Amiens, discusses two cases of unavailability of power plants in France and the consequences under the EU Regulation on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency (REMIT). He interviews Alexandra Bonhomme, director of the legal department at Commission de Régulation de l´Énergie (CRE), and Emeric de Vigan, Vice-President Power at Kepler Analytics, to understand the details of the two cases and the respective legal outcomes. The first case relates to the EDF group and to the unavailability of a nuclear plant; the second one relates to Engie and to the outage of a gas-fired power plant.

In this short interview, James Kneebone of the Florence School of Regulation is joined by co-founder of Bioflux, Paul Préaux, to discuss innovation in the drive to decarbonise the EU energy and waste systems. Paul gives an overview of his work with biomass pyrolysis and how this technology is being applied to valorise waste streams for the production of energy, heat, and useful biochar. The pair explore some of the challenges for innovation in this space, where best-practices are already being shared, and how the prevailing energy trilemma (security, sustainability, and price) has created a fresh imperative for policy to be more dynamic and to move quickly.

In this third episode of the “Transport 4 Future” series, host Prof. Juan Montero sits down for a discussion with Alberto Mazzola, Executive Director of the Community of European Railways and Infrastructure Companies (CER), on the key challenges to establishing seamless cross-border passenger rail travel across Europe. Their conversation touches upon a range of topics pertaining to timetables, ticketing, the provision of real-time information about disruption and delays, as well as more technical issues linked to standardisation and data protection.

What are railway undertakings currently doing when it comes to digitalisation? What is being done in order to make timetables more widely and quickly available both at the national and international level? What are the main challenges ahead to rendering ticketing, and in particular through ticketing, available across different platforms? What is the role of digital tools in providing real-time information during journey disruptions and delays? What are the main differences between the Agreement on Journey Continuation and the HOTNAT (hop on the next available train) Agreement? How can we ensure that passengers are equipped with all necessary tools to proceed with journey continuation in cases of disruption?

Tune in to this podcast for the answers to these questions and more!

In the past year, several crises have emerged and posed important challenges to the European Union. The impact of energy shortages is aggravated by problems in the supply of raw materials, manufactured components and, finally, by the war in Ukraine.

In this podcast, FSR Director, Jean-Michel Glachant, and CEO of the European Climate Foundation, Laurence Tubiana, share their thoughts with Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) after the launching of the joint policy manifesto, “Between crises and decarbonization: realigning EU climate and energy policy for a new State of the World”.

Glachant and Tubiana are crystal-clear that energy security and climate security are not two contrasting goals, but the new “State of the World”. In this new world, EU has to rethink its strategy and decision making to prepare a systemic change involving all its citizens beyond traditional stakeholders.

➡️ To watch the recording of the launching event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkrSpu3LXW8

➡️ To read the policy manifesto https://fsr.eui.eu/publications/?handle=1814/74737

This episode of the podcast series Spot on Climate centres on the reform of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) presented in the Fit for 55 Package, aiming at “Delivering the European Green Deal”. The interview with Milan Elkerbout from CEPS, a think tank in Brussels, aims to better understand the role of the European carbon market in supporting the EU to become carbon neutral by 2050. Until now, the EU ETS has been the cornerstone of the European climate policy, but to what extent will this persist? In July 2021, the European Commission proposed an extension of the scope and several amendments to the EU ETS functioning, along with other significant reforms such as the introduction of a border carbon adjustment.

Milan Elkerbout (CEPS) works as a Research Fellow in the Energy, Resources and Climate Change Unit. His research focuses on EU climate policy, in particular the EU ETS. He was interviewed by Albert Ferrari, a Research Associate at FSR Climate. The main questions covered in the podcast are:

- the most significant changes in the reform of the EU emissions trading system in the Fit for 55 Package;

- the implementation of the second ETS covering the emissions associated with fuel combustion in the sectors of road transport and building;

- the growing concern about the acceptability of carbon prices and how to tackle this issue;

- the proposed carbon border adjustment mechanism impacts on the EU ETS and carbon market integration.

More info:

- CEPS publications: https://www.ceps.eu/ceps-publications/?filter_units=26

- Project LIFE DICET: https://lifedicetproject.eui.eu/

In this second episode of the “Transport 4 Future” series, host Prof. Juan Montero sits down for a discussion with Roelof Hellemans, Secretary General of the MaaS Alliance, on the trending topic of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). How do we define MaaS? Are there different types of MaaS solutions? What are the main benefits of empowering the traveler, which, in turn, is a guiding principle of MaaS? What are the main obstacles to the rollout of MaaS solutions? What role for public authorities, and which should be the leading actors in the transition (i.e., municipalities, transport service providers, platforms)? Where are we headed and what are the long-term requirements for MaaS to take-off? What are the latest MaaS developments across the world? Tune in to find out what the future of mobility holds!

This podcast focuses on the Commission’s state aid decision on the Belgian capacity mechanism from August 2021 and highlights the key legal aspects of the case. This case is a recent one in a long line of Commission’s state aid decisions on capacity mechanisms but it contains several novel features.

It involves an assessment of whether the capacity mechanism complies with the 2019 Electricity Regulation and illustrates how the European Commission conducts the balancing of the positive and negative assessments of a proposed measure in anticipation of the new state aid guidelines for climate, energy and environment (CEEAG) which came into force in January 2022. It is also the only case so far where the Commission deals with the complexities of avoiding so-called carbon lock-in effects.

This podcast is about the replicability of the project LIFE DICET in other policy areas at the European level. It focuses on how the European Union (EU) and its Member States could successfully extend emission trading to other sectors, such as fuel combustion for buildings and road transport, and how a project like LIFE DICET could help tackle this challenge.

In the podcast, Albert Ferrari from FSR Climate converses with Michael Pahle (PIK Potsdam) about LIFE DICET and the German experience to create an emission trading system (ETS) for the sectors of buildings and road transport. This discussion feeds into the current debates on a possible second EU ETS for these sectors, as proposed by the European Commission in the Fit For 55 Package.

Michael Pahle leads the Working Group on Energy and Climate Policy at PIK Potsdam, and he also is an active member of the LIFE DICET Core Expert Group. In 2021, he co-authored for Bruegel a policy contribution in favour of “A whole-economy carbon price for Europe and how to get there”.

The project LIFE DICET is co-financed by the EU LIFE Programme. It supports the EU and the Member States in the development and possible integration of carbon markets with five other ETS regulators, namely China, California, Québec, New Zealand and Switzerland.

More info:

- Project LIFE DICET: https://lifedicetproject.eui.eu/

- Edenhofer, O., M. Kosch, M. Pahle and G. Zachmann (2021) ‘A whole-economy carbon price for Europe and how to get there’, Policy Contribution 06/2021, Bruegel

https://www.bruegel.org/2021/03/a-whole-economy-carbon-price-for-europe-and-how-to-get-there/