2nd Interdisciplinary PhD expert course for young researchers

26 March 2019By

Submission deadline for extended abstract and CV submission: June 1, 2019
Submission deadline for full paper: August 30, 2019
Further information

The EU has set up a roadmap towards a low-carbon economy which involves (i) the development of clean technologies and low carbon energy, (ii) the reduction in resource use, (iii) an increased energy security, and (iv) health benefits. Consequently, there is a strong need for methods that assess the environmental, economic and overall societal effects of the actions taken on industrial and policy levels.
To meet this demand, we organize a PhD expert course on three different, state-of-the-art assessment tools which have a multitude of useful applications in different disciplines. However, interchange between these different disciplines is currently limited. Furthermore, as the actual actions for the Low Carbon Economy are taken at industry and policy level, integration of the different work fields is required.
Format
A three-day event with method lectures, keynote speakers bridging methods to work field applications, and paper presentation sessions with discussants from the pool of participants and senior researchers.
Target Audience
PhD students or first-year postdocs working on TEA, LCA, or integrated analyses with regard to any topic of the low-carbon economy are invited to participate to the course by submitting an extended abstract.
Venue
University of Antwerp, City Campus
Prinsstraat, 13 | 2000 Antwerp
Participation is free of charge and includes lunches, a welcome reception, and a social dinner!
By following the course and presenting your work, you get awarded with 1 ECTS-credit point. All participants will also receive a certificate of attendance.

READ MORE
Ecosystems & biodiversity

New FAO Report: “World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture”

12 March 2019By

This report presents the first global assessment of biodiversity for food and agriculture (BFA). It gives an original view compared with other global assessments, which put the spotlight on the state of genetic resources within specific sectors of food and agriculture. The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture (SoW-BFA) analyses the sustainable use, development and conservation of BFA worldwide.

BFA is considered to include all the animals, plants and micro-organisms which – in a way or another – contribute to the production systems and provide food and non-food agricultural products.

Download & read the Full Report

Picture credits: FAO

READ MORE
Economy & carbon markets

New World Bank Report “Fiscal Policies for Development and Climate Action”

12 March 2019By

This report provides practical insights for an effective design and implementation of fiscal policies for both development and climate action. The report maintains that well-designed environmental tax reforms are especially valuable in developing countries, where they can reduce emissions, increase domestic revenues and generate positive welfare effects. The report
offers policy recommendations for finance decision-makers to increase the mobilization of domestic resources and improve human well-being while enhancing development in spite of one if its main threats: climate change.
Read the Full Report

Picture credits: The World Bank Group – own rielaboration

READ MORE
Cities

Clean mobility: Putting an end to polluting trucks

1 March 2019By

The Commission has welcomed the first EU standards to reduce pollution from trucks. On 19 February, the European Parliament and the Council reached provisional agreement on a Regulation setting strict CO2 emission standards for trucks, for the first time in the EU. The deal follows the agreement reached in December on new CO2 emission standards for cars and light vans in the EU for the period after 2020. Under the agreement, emissions from new trucks will have to be 30% lower in 2030 compared to the 2019 emissions.

Read the News on the European Commission website

READ MORE
Emissions & mitigation

US Green New Deal – Prof. Barbier’s comments on the plan

1 March 2019By

In the last month, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. introduced a resolution in Congress calling for a “Green New Deal”. It calls for massive government spending over the next 10 years to shift the U.S. economy away from polluting industries, embrace green infrastructure and produce 100% of energy from renewables. In the process, the Green New Deal aims to create jobs and boost the economy. Prof. Edward Barbier was the author of the UNEP’s Global Green New Deal, a plan to lift the world economy out of the 2008-9 Great Recession, and was asked to comment on the broad outlines of the plan. For further details, see this post in Business Insider and Prof. Barbier’s article in Nature.

READ MORE
Policy Outreach Events

Trust in the Single Market? The case of the EU Emissions Trading System

1 March 2019By

Watch the full video of the event!

Webpage of the event

Carbon pricing is widely regarded as a key instrument to achieve the emission reduction targets set by the Paris Agreement. Since the introduction of the European Emission Trading System (EU ETS) in 2005, carbon pricing has grown extensively around the world. The EU ETS is the result of a complex legislative process involving the governments of 31 participating countries, thus providing one of the most interesting examples of democratic participation of EU countries in the design of a EU crucial policy and in the creation of a single market in the EU.

Since its adoption, the EU ETS has faced a number of challenges, including a substantial price fall with allowance prices getting below 5€/ton of CO2 during the economic recession. This has urged European institutions to implement a series of revisions of the system. As a result, after years of low carbon prices, in which trust in the EU ETS was low, the price of the European allowances has risen remarkably (up to around 20€/tonne at the moment of writing) following the announcement of the reform of the EU ETS for Phase IV (2021-2030), which was passed in 2018. This confirms the crucial role that expectations can play in anticipating the policy when this is perceived as sufficient stringent, credible and long-run.

The following questions will be addressed by the side event:

  • What is the current level of trust by participants and the public opinion in the EU ETS?
  • What can be done to further support the credibility of the system and enhance trust in the single market in the context of climate policy?
  • How can transparency and MRV (Measurement, reporting and verification) contribute to build trust in climate policy measures in general, and in the EU ETS in particular?
  • How can we trigger mutual trust across countries and facilitate the ongoing negotiations on CORSIA and on Article 6 in the Paris Agreement?
  • How can scholars and research better bridge with Policy Makers to enhance trust in Climate Policy measures?

The Policy Outreach Committee of EAERE, together with FSR Climate and in collaboration with the School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute, organises this session to promote a more integrated dialogue between academia and the policy world, providing advice and support to EU policy makers and institutions in designing policy interventions. The event intends to continue the policy dialogue carried out by FSR Climate under the LIFE SIDE project(co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union) concluded at the end of 2018, which supported European policy makers with the design and implementation of the new EU ETS legislation.

Speakers

Ottmar Edenhofer, Director and Chief Economist, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Director, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, Professor, Technische Universität Berlin
Hermann Vollebergh, Professor of Economics and Environmental Policy, Tilburg University, and Senior Research Fellow, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
Martin Weitzman, Professor of Economics, Harvard University Center for the Environment

Panelists

Dominique Bureau, General Delegate of the Economic council for sustainable development, Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, France
Ben Groom, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics, London, UK
Phoebe Koundouri, Scientific Chair of the International Center for Research on the Economy and the Environment (ICRE8), and School of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece
Xavier Labandeira, Director of Economics for Energy, Spain, and Department of Applied Economics, University of Vigo, Spain
Aldo Ravazzi, Chair OECD-WPEP (Working Party on Environmental Performance Country Reviews), President Green Budget Europe, and Chief Economist, DG Sustainable Development, EU&Global Affairs – TA Sogesid, Italian Ministry of Environment.

DOWNLOAD THE PDF PRESENTATIONS

BORGHESI

DOWNLOAD

EDENHOFER

DOWNLOAD

VOLLEBERGH

DOWNLOAD
READ MORE