Author Archives: Veronica Vidotto

The World Council of Environmental and Resource Economists Associations – WCEREA is pleased to announce the webinar on “The political economy of carbon pricing” to be held on September 9, 2025 at 9:00 – 10:30 am Pacific Time (see time converter here).

The Webinar

There is a considerable number of carbon pricing initiatives around the world. Nevertheless, in general, the level of these prices is lower than needed to mitigate emissions sufficiently to hit the Paris Agreement targets on time. A major reason behind low carbon taxes and high carbon caps seems to be political. Authorities are not willing to pay the political cost of higher carbon prices. A possible increase in the energy costs and how this increase is distributed among different income groups is not the only driver of the political cost. Part of the policy cost arises because carbon prices address a global problem, not a national one. Therefore, international cooperation plays a significant role in the domestic political economy of carbon prices.

To induce the level and speed of mitigation that carbon prices alone at politically viable levels are unlikely to achieve, several colleagues have suggested that climate policy should adopt a more “holistic” approach. According to this approach, carbon taxes should complement other instruments, such as subsidies to R&D, more “prescriptive” instruments, and a carbon border adjustment mechanism. In this scenario, important questions remain to be answered: Are high carbon prices doomed as climate policy instruments? How does international cooperation affect the chances of observing effective carbon prices in the future? What is the role that a carbon border adjustment mechanism should have? In this webinar, we gathered three distinguished scholars to present their views on these pressing questions.

Moderator

Marcelo Caffera, University of Montevideo

Panelists

• Bård Harstad, Stanford Graduate School of Business
• Jeroen van den Bergh, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Catherine Wolfram, MIT Sloan School of Management

Registration

The event will take place online on Zoom platform.

Register at https://cmcc-it.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4zbd5MRERGiHB2m94xTsVw#/registration

Organisers

The webinar is organised by the WCEREA Board.

WCEREA Member Associations

AAERE, Asian Association of Environmental and Resource Economics

AERE, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists

AFAERE, African Association of Environmental and Resource Economists

EAERE, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists

WCEREA Partner Association

LAERE, Latin American Association of Environmental and Resource Economists

The Mediterranean Association of Environmental and Resource Economists – MEDAERE in collaboration with the Department of Economic and Business Sciences (DiSea) of the University of Sassari are pleased to announce the workshop on “The role of Mediterranean in a new international order“, to be held at the University of Sassari (Italy) and online, on July 10, 2025 at 10:30 am – 12:30 pm CEST. The event is supported by EAERE.

The workshop

The world is currently entering a phase of international conflicts, protectionism and deglobalisation that seems to bring the clock of history back in time to last century. The renewed trade wars characterizing the period are likely to have detrimental effects on the global economies, with negative consequences on environmental and climate policies as well. The Mediterranean looks particularly vulnerable and at risk in this new fragmented international order for many reasons. First, the ongoing conflicts are likely to have long-run consequences on the local environment in an area that is already a crucial environmental hot-spot. Second, the current international tensions may obstacle international cooperation on environmental issues among Mediterranean countries. Third, the economic crisis that may be provoked by trade tariffs can exacerbate the economic difficulties of the poorest Med countries.

This generates some of the questions that will be addressed in the workshop: (i) What is the expected impact of the trade tariffs on the Mediterranean economies and environment? (ii) What is their possible impact on the global value chains involving Mediterranean countries? (iii) What is the role of FDI in Mediterranean countries and what is the relationship between FDI and the environment in the Mediterranean? (iv) How can we promote international cooperation among Mediterranean countries on environmental policies?

The event builds upon past workshops organized on the ecological problems in the Mediterranean basin and the challenges of international cooperation among Med countries.

Institutional address

Marco Vannini, Scientific Coordinator of the Department of Excellence Project 2023–2027.

Chair and moderator

Simone Borghesi – EAERE, European University Institute (Florence) and University of Siena.

Speakers

Sevil Acar –Boğaziçi University (Istanbul);
Simone Borghesi – EAERE, European University Institute (Florence) and University of Siena;
Mira Manini Tiwari- European University Institute (Florence);
Chahir Zaki – University of Orléans.

Participation

Participation in the workshop is free of charge. The workshop will be held in Room B1 at the Department of Economic and Business Sciences – DiSea at the University of Sassari, via Muroni 25 (Italy) and online. It is possible to attend the workshop either in person or online by completing the Google form available at this link by July 6, 2025.

Organiser and further information

The organiser of the event is Angelo Antoci, University of Sassari. For further information, please contact Angelo Antoci at antoci@uniss.it.