Policy Outreach Events

In the 17th Episode of the CEPR/EAERE Webinar Series, on Monday 28 October 2024, from 4PM (CET), 11AM (EDT), and 3PM (GMT), Patrick Bolton (Imperial College London and CEPR) and Alissa M. Kleinnijenhuis (Cornell University, Imperial College London and CEPR) will present their paper “The Economic Case for Climate Finance at Scale”. The paper lays out the first economic case for scaling up climate finance from advanced countries to support EMDE decarbonization, particularly focusing on coal, the most polluting fossil fuel. With COP29 approaching and its agenda centered on setting a New Quantified Goal of Climate Finance (aiming to increase the $100 billion-a-year climate finance pledge to over $1 trillion a year), the paper’s findings are especially relevant. It empirically shows that large-scale climate finance is not only equitable but also economically beneficial for advanced economies.

The discussants, Geoffrey Heal (Columbia University and CEPR) and Lasse Heje Pedersen (Copenhagen Business School and CEPR), will provide complementary perspectives on the paper. Heal’s recent work on Blended Finance aligns with the presented paper’s focus on system-wide blended finance, while Pedersen’s research on Green Finance vs. Carbon Taxation, as explored in his CEPR VoxTalks Climate Finance podcast, finds that financial markets alone cannot achieve the necessary SCC. Pedersen’s paper is fundamental as it shows that green finance without government intervention cannot replicate a reasonable SCC, so if financial markets are to make a difference at the magnitude required to solve the climate crisis, system-wide public-private climate finance is likely important, which brings us back to The Economic Case for Climate Finance at Scale.

Click here to register.

For more information, check the invitation here.

The EAERE Policy Outreach event “Environment, Resources, and Cooperation in the Mediterranean“, in partnership with the University of Siena and the EUI, will take place on September 13, 2024 at 15:15-16:15 CEST in Pontignano, Siena (Italy) and will be streamed online.

The event is framed within the Vision Pontignano Conference on the Future of Europe 2024. The full agenda is available here.

Concept Note

Political borders and unions offer unparalleled opportunities for robust, integrated climate policy. The EU’s Green Deal, a suite of ambitious, largely binding, climate legislation is a prime example of this. However, they also artificially restrict the field of cooperation to within specific borders, a risky limitation in the face of notoriously cross-border climate impacts.

The EU’s Southern border with the Mediterranean is as relevant for climate futures as its Northern border with the Arctic, additionally layered with the social complexities of climate change, including resource conflicts, migration, energy access, and climate disasters. In the face of this, building on a rich history of Mediterranean cooperation and diversity, and on environmental economics cooperation around the world, we see ample scope for sustainable collective environmental progress. The University of Siena and Vision have long supported Mediterranean cooperation in research and development, most notably in Prime Minister Prodi’s advocacy of a Mediterranean University, and we are honored to support missions in this direction.

Chair

Simone Borghesi, Vice Rector for International Relations of the University of Siena, Director of the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) Climate at the European University Institute, and President of EAERE

Speakers

• Romano Prodi (Former President of the European Commission and former Prime Minister of Italy),
• Valeria Costantini (Economics Department Director at Roma Tre and President of the Italian Association of Environmental and Resource Economists),
• Marcello Scalisi (Director of the Mediterranean Universities Union – UNIMED),
• Angelo Riccaboni (President of the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area – PRIMA),
• Carmen Arguedas, (President of the Spanish-Portuguese Association of Natural and Environmental Resource Economics),
• Raja Chakir (Steering Committee of the French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists).

Online registration

If you are willing to follow the event online access this Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84186643605.

Adrien Bilal (Harvard University and CEPR) and Diego R. Känzig (Northwestern University and CEPR) will present their paper The Macroeconomic Impact of Climate Change: Global vs. Local Temperature. This paper estimates that the macroeconomic damages from climate change are six times larger than previously thought. The authors exploit natural variability in global temperature and rely on time-series variation. A 1°C increase in global temperature leads to a 12% decline in world GDP. Global temperature shocks correlate much more strongly with extreme climatic events than the country-level temperature shocks commonly used in the panel literature, explaining why the estimate is substantially larger. The authors use a reduced-form evidence to estimate structural damage functions in a standard neoclassical growth model. The results imply a Social Cost of Carbon of $1,056 per ton of carbon dioxide. A business-as-usual warming scenario leads to a present value welfare loss of 31%. Both are multiple orders of magnitude above previous estimates and imply that unilateral decarbonization policy is cost-effective for large countries such as the United States.

Join us on 17 July 2024, from 5 PM (CEST), 11 AM (ET), and 4 PM (BST) with co-authors:

Adrien Bilal
Harvard University and CEPR

Diego R. Känzig
Northwestern University and CEPR

Discussant 
Simon Dietz
London School of Economics and CEPR

The presentation will be followed by a discussion and Q&A session with the audience moderated by:
Christian Gollier
Toulouse School of Economics, EAERE, and CEPR

Register here.

For more information, check the invitation here.

The 14th edition of The State of the Union takes place in Florence on 23rd and 24th May 2024. This year, the conference will have a special emphasis on the core themes of democracy and the rule of law, the digital and green transition, the future enlargements of the European Union, all of which will play a crucial role in the run-up to the European elections in June 2024.

A policy session on “Resilient economies and institutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change” is jointly organised by FSR Climate and the EAERE Policy Outreach Committee.  The frequency of natural disasters due to climate change is increasing, and institutions across different geographic areas are not equally ready to cope with such events. In fact, the lack of adequate institutional responses is likely to exacerbate the consequences of these events. Making the EU and developing countries better able to cope with the devastating consequences of climate change requires an articulated policy mix around carbon price, and resilient and reactive institutions and processes. Many economical, political and social lessons can be drawn from the recent health and war crises but also natural disasters.

This panel will explore feasible manners to enhance resiliency to climate change pursuing the European Green Deal agenda, taking in consideration the climate mitigation policies. It will also address how to better prepare agriculture, biodiversity, the health system and our economies in general to cope with climate change and how to protect the most vulnerable populations in developing countries and in Europe.

Moderators:

• Simone Borghesi, EAERE President and Director of the Florence School of Regulation – Climate, EUI
• Fabrizia Mealli, Professor of EconometricsEuropean University Institute, EU

Panellists:

• Hans-Martin Füssel, Climate Change Adaptation Expert, European Environment Agency (EEA)
• Shonali Pachauri, Research group leader, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
• Massamba Thioye, Project Executive UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub, UN Climate Change Secretariat
• Mira Manini Tiwari, Research Associate, RSCAS, EUI

The video recording of the event is available on YouTube.

In November 2023, the U.S. OMB has published new versions of Circular A-4 and Circular A-94 that contain in particular a new discounting system for public policy evaluation. The new risk-free discount rate is now fixed at 2% in real term, whereas it is also proposed to use a risk-adjusted discount rate of 3.1%. Compare to the earlier much larger discount rates, this reform is likely to make the American society more long-termist, in particular in the domain of environmental protection and climate change. This webinar will offer three critical analyses of the underlying approach which led to the reform, and of its consequences.

Join us on 3 April 2024, from 5 PM (CET), 11 AM (EST), and 4 PM (GMT) for a roundtable discussion with:

David Anthoff
University of California, Berkeley

Marcel Boyer
University of Montréal, and CIRANO

James K. Hammitt
Harvard University and Toulouse School of Economics

The presentation will be followed by a discussion and Q&A session with the audience moderated by
Christian Gollier
Toulouse School of Economics, EAERE, and CEPR

Register here

EAERE, Bocconi University and United Cities and Local Governments are glad to announce their COP28 Joint Side Event on “Innovative Instruments for Joint Biodiversity and Climate Policy“.

The Side Event will be held on Sunday, 10 December 2023,  18:30-20:00  (GMT+4)  |  15:30-17:00 CET Time) – SE Room 4.

ABSTRACT

Climate change and biodiversity agreements are strictly interconnected. Innovative economic and financial instruments can enhance biodiversity, increase resilience and reduce CO2 emissions. The event aims to assess the potential of joint climate and biodiversity policies at different territorial scales.

SPEAKERS

Simone BORGHESI, EAERE President-Elect, Director FSR Climate, EUI and University of Siena

Edoardo CROCI, Professor of Practice and Director of Sustainable Urban Regeneration Lab, Bocconi University

Sylvie GOULARD, President of the Institute for European policy-making, Bocconi University, and Co-chair of the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits

Andreas KONTOLEON, Professor of Environmental Economics and Public Policy, University of Cambridge

Alina KOSCHMIEDER, Climate change and environmental consultant UN-Habitat

Phoebe KOUNDOURI, President – European Association of Environmental Resource Economists, Chair – World Council of Environmental Resource Economists Associations, Chair – UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network Global Climate Hub, Professor – Athens University of Economics and Business, Professor – Technical University of Denmark

Eva MAYERHOFER, Head of Environmental Policy and Lead Biodiversity Specialist, European Investment Bank

Massamba THIOYE, Project Executive UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub

CHAIRPERSONS

Jos DELBEKE, EIB Climate Chair, School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute

Benedetta LUCCHITTA, Research fellow Sustainable Urban Regeneration Lab, Bocconi University

Register to watch online or to confirm your presence at the venue, using the Registration Form.

For those attending on-site, please kindly note that the side event will be located in the Blue Zone where a specific UNFCCC accreditation is needed.

As carbon markets around the world evolve and mature, jurisdictions are increasingly experimenting with market stability measures such as cost containment reserves to manage carbon price volatility and help ensure that market prices are aligned with climate policy goals. This webinar brings together experts from the United States and Europe to discuss how these design features work, what policy objectives they are designed to address, and real-world.

Join us on 15 November 2023, from 4 PM (CET), 10 AM (EST), and 3 PM (GMT) for a roundtable discussion with:

Dallas Burtraw
Darius Gaskins Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future
Price Responsive Allowance Supply, Policy Sequencing, and the Pathway to Net Zero

Christian Traeger
Professor of Economics, University of Oslo, Research Director, ifo Institute & Associate Fellow, CEPR Climate Change RPN
Carbon Tax vs Trade Towards “Carbon Tax and Trade”

Christian Flachsland
Professor of Climate Policy, Hertie School
Managing allowance price risk in the new EU emissions trading architecture

The presentation will be followed by a discussion and Q&A session with the audience moderated by

Meredith Fowlie 
Professor, University Of California Berkeley, Research Associate, NBER & Associate Fellow, CEPR Climate Change RPN

Register here

Recent international surveys reveal sincere support for a global carbon price funding a global basic income. Join us on Wednesday, 7 June 2023, 05:00-06:30 PM (CEST) to hear Adrien Fabre (CNRS) presenting a Global Climate Plan acceptable to most countries building upon these results.

The presentation will be followed by a discussion and Q&A session with the audience moderated by Christian Gollier (Toulouse School of Economics, EAERE, CEPR & Climate Change RPN Leader).

Register here!

Recently, interest has been growing in how different types of policy instruments across countries could be compared. Since Paris, most Parties to the Paris Agreement have committed to quantified mitigation targets in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) documents. Countries determine themselves how to meet such targets, however. They use or plan to use a widely varied set of policy instruments to lower GHG emissions which allows them to accommodate national circumstances. This complicates the comparison of mitigation strategies, and the ability to gain a clear understanding of cumulative effort across countries. Several ideas have been launched recently to better enable such comparisons including the development of comparable metrics to measure the effects of policies on emission reductions. Also, interesting policy initiatives add to this development including a recent one from the OECD. Such initiatives also help to address concerns over competitiveness losses and carbon leakage from unilateral initiatives, reinforce trust and reduce the risks of non-compliance. This session discusses some of the background issues as well as potential avenues available to move forward.

Policy Session organisers: Simone Borghesi (EAERE POC Secretary General, European University Institute and University of Siena) and Jos Delbeke (EAERE POC, European University Institute and KU Leuven)