Filippo Gaddo, Managing Director at MAP and SPE member, held a discussion with Dimitri Zenghelis, Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Special Advisor to the Wealth Economy project. Dimitri has written extensively on climate change and energy transition policy

In the interview, Dimitri and Filippo discuss the current status of the energy transition and the progress made by climate policy and the decarbonisation of the energy sector. Dimitri argues that the ‘genie is out of the bottle’ and that decarbonisation of electricity for sure but more broadly of the energy sector is inevitable, as the cost of production for renewable energy technologies has significantly fallen over the past decade or so. Lots of progress needs still to happen of course, particularly in end use technologies and in networks. Does net zero add to productivity and growth? Yes, is the answer from Dimitri, but the question now is more about who will build and benefit from the manufacturing of net zero technologies. The UK is well positioned in this race but in danger of losing ground. The policies of the recently installed Labour government are promising in this regard. Filippo and Dimitri end the talk by discussing the Wealth Economy and different ways to measure growth and productivity.

Dimitri Zenghelis is Special Advisor to the Wealth Economy project, which he also co-founded, centred at Cambridge University. He is also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. He was until recently Head of Policy at the Grantham Research Institute at the LSE and Acting Chief Economist for the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. Previously, Dimitri headed the Stern Review Team at the Office of Climate Change, London, and was a lead author on the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, commissioned by the then Chancellor Gordon Brown. He was also Senior Economic Advisor to Cisco's long-term innovation group and an Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House. Before working on climate change, Dimitri was Head of Economic Forecasting at HM Treasury.