Fsr Energy & Climate

In this first episode of FSR Transport’s new podcast series ‘Transport 4 Future’ host Prof. Juan Montero speaks with Bertil Hylén, Scientific Advisor of FSR Transport about EU railway regulation and policy in relation to passenger rail services. Having closely witnessed the reform of EU railway acquis over the past 30 years, Bertil reflects on the factors behind the limited progress achieved in many Member States and shares his take on the possible ways forward. What are the necessary preconditions for the completion of the reform process in the rail sector? Has public financing been conducive of efficiency in terms of targeting the necessary rail services? Can international cross-border rail services play a greater role in Europe and should the EU be supporting their development? What about night train services? Can Rail Freight Corridors effectively boost the share of international rail freight services or is there a need for a greater degree of EU coordination? Can complex cross-border services be tendered

In this episode of the ‘On The Move’ series Teodora Serafimova, Research Associate at the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation, is joined by Delphine Grandsart, Senior Researcher at the European Passengers’ Federation, an international non-profit association representing Europe’s major passenger organisations and the interests of travellers at the EU level. What is the most desired instrument to curb emissions from road transport? What is the sort of information passengers should be provided with to induce them to opt for journeys with lower environmental footprints? What is the best way to facilitate the provision of such information to passengers, while avoiding greenwashing? What are some of the main hurdles in the way to establishing a common multimodal framework for ticketing and passenger rights? How can MaaS benefit passengers, and how has COVID-19 affected its future development? Are the current Commission guidelines for State aid in the aviation sector fit-for-purpose? What should be

On 15 December 2021 at 6th AIEE Energy Symposium, the FSR Director, Jean-Michel Glachant gave a presentation from the title “Towards flexible energy systems on the demand side: Markets & Regulation”. Professor Glachant has been elected President-elect 2022 of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) to start from January 2022. To learn more about IAEE: https://www.iaee.org/

In this episode of the On The Right Track podcast series, host Juan Montero, Part-time Professor at the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation, is joined by Veronika Haunold, European and International Affairs Manager at the Austrian Federal Railways ÖBB, in discussing the role of railways in driving the decarbonisation of the transport sector. What can railways do to support transport decarbonisation? What are the necessary measures to support the Commission’s modal shift objectives in relation to passenger rail? How can we meet passengers’ need for intermodal door-to-door connectivity? How can digitalisation boost multimodality? What is ÖBB doing in respect to night train services? What are the main obstacles to modal shift in freight transport? How can digital tools help to resolve these? Are railways “green” enough? Listen to their full conversation to get the answers to these questions

In this 5th episode of the ‘On The Move’ series Teodora Serafimova, Research Associate at the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation, speaks with Mitra Qurban, Director for Public Policy and EU Affairs at Deutsche Post DHL (DPDHL), the world’s largest logistics company. DHL Group recently announced plans to accelerate the pace of its decarbonisation to achieve climate-neutral logistics by the year 2030. In the episode, Mitra elaborates on the concrete measures DPDHL is implementing to reduce the footprint of its operations in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal. How does the company ensure that its operations, which are being outsourced to third-party providers, meet minimal environmental quality standards? What are the main challenges to establishing a common framework for the harmonised measurement of transport and logistics-related greenhouse gas emissions? Does the Commission’s ReFuelEU Aviation proposal suffice to scale up the production of zero-emission sustainable aviat

With the European Year of Rail being halfway through, host Juan Montero, Part-time Professor at the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation is joined by François Davenne, Director General of the International Union of Railways (UIC), as they take stock of progress achieved to date. What is the role of technology in increasing the modal share of rail in the passenger segment? What is UIC doing in terms of using technology to facilitate better interaction between the different industry players? Can technology improve the reliability of cross-border rail freight services and thereby help to boost the modal share of rail freight? Is the current regulatory framework conducive towards more efficient cross-border services, or will a stronger EU involvement in cross-border traffic management be necessary? Is the recent revival of night train services in Europe here to stay? Tune in to their conversation to learn more.

This is a podcast about the replicability of the project LIFE DICET in other policy areas. It focuses on the development of a new mechanism of the Paris Agreement called internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs). In the podcast, Albert Ferrari from FSR Climate converses with Suzi Kerr about the replication and extension of LIFE DICET to foster cooperative approaches around ITMOs and the creation of climate teams. Suzi, Chief Economist of the Environmental Defense Fund, is an active member of the LIFE DICET Core Expert Group. She leads the project Climate Teams that aims to set up a new mechanism for international climate cooperation. The project LIFE DICET is co-financed by the EU LIFE Programme. It aims to support the EU and the Member States in international cooperation to develop and integrate carbon markets with five other ETS regulators, namely China, California, Québec, New Zealand and Switzerland. More info: https://lifedicetproject.eui.eu/ https://climateteams.org/

In this podcast, Professors Kim Talus (Universities of Tulane, Eastern Finland and Helsinki), Dirk Buschle (Energy Community Secretariat, College of Europe), and Leigh Hancher (FSR, Tilburg University, and Baker Botts LLP) discuss the impact that the CJEU's recent recognition of energy solidarity as a justiciable principle of EU law will have on the future of EU energy law and policy.

This podcast episode discusses the European Commission’s State aid decision to open a formal investigation procedure with regards to the German lignite phase-out plans, which were passed with the coal phase-out law of 2020. The episode highlights the doubts expressed by the Commission in its opening decision and also touches upon possible additional doubts on some of the other assessment criteria that will have to be addressed by the Commission’s formal investigation. The podcast also touches upon the new section in the Commission’s draft Climate, Environmental and Energy Aid Guidelines, on aid for the early closure of coal plants and its provisions on compensation for such closure.

This podcast from the Gas and Climate area of the Florence School of Regulation is part of the series "IAEE online conference: Energy, Covid, and Climate Change". In this instalment, James Kneebone of FSR is joined by Marina Holgado of the International Energy Agency (IEA) technical collaboration programme (TCP) secretariat for hydrogen. The podcast explores the outcomes of the IAEE online conference session 'Power-to-Hydrogen and Hydrogen-to-X' as well as the wider work of the TCP, through the following questions: - What is the Hydrogen TCP and more specifically 'Task 38'? What can our viewers learn from Task 38 results? - One of the main conclusions in Task 38 was that hydrogen was not being well represented in energy modelling scenarios, in your view, why was that? Has this changed?

This is a podcast of the series "Spot on Climate" of the Climate area of the Florence School of Regulation. In this podcast, Albert FERRARI discusses with Axel Michaelowa, Head of the Group on "International Climate Policy" at the University of Zurich and leading expert in the design of the market mechanisms of the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol. The podcast episode explores how can we ensure that international carbon markets are in line with the long-term target of the Paris Agreement through three questions: - what relevance will have the issue of double-counting in the upcoming talks about the Rulebook on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement? - how could Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) linking contribute to the achievement of the Paris objectives? - how can carbon markets, especially the market-based mechanism under the Paris Agreement, fit in the Architecture established at the COP21, given the diversity of nature and targets in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)?

Following the plenary session on “The future energy mix” of the 1st IAEE Online Conference, Piero Carlo dos Reis interviewed Prof. Keigo Akimoto (RITE), who chaired this session, in order to ask him about his main reflections. Prof. Keigo explained that the future energy mix will be largely driven by a wide range of technological innovations in both energy supply side and demand side aiming at deep GHG emissions reduction (e.g., renewables, batteries, negative emissions technologies …). However, Prof. Keigo believes that it will be challenging to coordinate deep emissions reduction across several countries at different economic growth stages, some prioritising cheap energy costs for their energy-intensive industries, others implementing carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs). Ultimately, if we wish to achieve deep emissions reduction worldwide, we have to make an effort to have both a good coordination among countries and clean technological innovations leading to cheap energy costs.

In the slipstream of the concluding plenary session on the future of the energy system, Tim Schittekatte interviews Christophe Bonnery who chaired the session to ask him about his main reflections. Bonnery explains that in order to meet our netzero goals we can expect more government intervention in supporting the investment in new power generation. Also, Bonnery emphasizes that not only increased deployment of renewables are key in the green transition but that there is also an important role for the distribution system operator to act as an enabler of a greener, more decentralized power system.

Nuclear energy is a low-carbon energy source that could play an important role in the decarbonisation of the energy sector and provide additional benefits in terms of local employment and security of supply. However, the development of nuclear energy, at least in Western countries, has been limited in the past few years. The industry is ready to do its part but invites governments to make clear decisions and provide a level playing field where nuclear can compete with other capital-intensive and low-carbons sources. Innovations like small-scale reactors and combined heat and power provision could improve the economics and the financiability of nuclear investments. At the same time, it is essential to plan for the long-term and preserve in countries like France the existing supply chain with all its skills and competencies so that new reactors can be delivered timely and cost-competitively over the next decades The afternoon parallel session of the 1st IAEE Online Conference addressed these topics on 9 June 20

Prof Anna Creti and I discuss what are the key issues raised while addressing SDG7 targets. Are we ready ? Do we have the data and evidence to make informed decisions ? What would be an appropriate framework to tackle the issue at the distribution end? What lessons can be learnt from experiences on the ground? Follow the podcast to know what the panellist had to say about these questions On Tuesday, 8 June 2021, the 1st IAEE Online Conference, the Morning Parallel Session 2.1 on ‘Energy access around the world’ took place. The session was presided by Prof. Anna Creti, Université Paris-Dauphine. The panellists were - Prof. Jörg Peters, Research with Impact - RWI, ESSEN - Prof. Ignacio Pérez-Arriaga, MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society- - Assistant Prof. Federico Pontoni, Bocconi University

On Tuesday, 8 June 2021, the 1st IAEE Online Conference, the Parallel Session 2.1 on ‘Energy Transition and Local Governance’ took place. The session was presided by Michael Pollitt (University of Cambridge). The panellists were Marianne Laigneau (Enedis), Matthew E. Kahn (University of Southern California), Anna Alberini, (University of Maryland) and Michael Caramanis (Boston University).

This podcast was created as a part of the FSR’s Lights on Women initiative in joint partnership with Inter-American Development Bank under the Lights on Women LAC Edition series. The Caribbean region has a growing renewable energy sector that is adding close to half a million jobs and skills globally each year. At the same time the prices of renewable sources such as wind and solar are dropping, as are technologies like batteries, and governments see a golden opportunity here. In this podcast, Dr Malaika Masson is a Senior Regional Energy Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). discuss these opportunities and challenges ahead for the Caribbean region in our latest podcast. Dr Malaika Masso Bio She brings 15 years of experience bridging governance and institutional policy with transformative investments in the energy sector. She currently manages the IDB energy portfolios for Jamaica and Bahamas, focusing on integrated resource planning, investments in renewable energy and energy efficienc

Podcast Series "Energy Transition – the Commission’s State aid decisions on the Dutch and German coal phase-out laws" This podcast episode discusses the European Commission’s State aid decision concerning Germany’s coal phase-out law of 2020, in particular its auction mechanism to compensate operators for hard coal closures. The episode highlights some criticalities in the decision and also touches upon the outcome of the first two auction rounds.

Podcast Series "Energy Transition – the Commission’s State aid decisions on the Dutch and German coal phase-out laws" This podcast episode addresses the European Commission’s State aid decision regarding the Dutch coal phase-out law passed in 2019. Starting with the landmark Urgenda judgment in the background of the Dutch coal phase-out law, it discusses the details of the Commission’s decision concerning the compensation granted by The Netherlands to Vattenfall for the early closure of its Hemweg plant.

In this episode, Michele Azalbert, CEO of Engie Hydrogen Business Unit, joins Joana Freitas to discuss the role of green hydrogen in the energy transition. Green hydrogen has created quite the buzz. From the European Commission's ambitious roadmap for green hydrogen until 2050 to US President Joe Biden's promise to use renewable energy to produce green hydrogen. Other countries like Chile, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Australia are also announcing major investments in green hydrogen. Michele Azalbert sees hydrogen “as the missing link of the energy transition” as it would enable to store large quantities of renewables over a long period and to decarbonize several sectors, as industry, transport, construction and energy. Despite several false starts, hydrogen is gathering strong momentum as a key energy transition pillar. “Clearly, it is not the first time neither the second time hydrogen has been talked about, but we think this time seems to be different. Green hydrogen is not yet competitive. Today we are in th