Fsr Energy & Climate

This is a podcast of the series "Spot on Climate" of the Climate area of the Florence School of Regulation. In this podcast, Research Associate Albert FERRARI discusses with Andrei MARCU, Founder and Executive Director of the European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition (ERCST). Andrei has been one of the corporate-sector pioneers in the area of climate change and carbon markets. ERCST leads an Informal Forum on Implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which brings together negotiators in an informal discussion to contribute towards arriving at a common understanding in view of achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement. This episode focuses on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, through a discussion on these issues: - The different ways in which the Parties to the Paris Agreement can engage in international cooperation under Article 6, - The stumbling blocks of the negotiation process in view of reaching an agreement on the Paris Rulebook, - The roles the UK and Italy could

In this episode of the ‘On The Move’ series Teodora Serafimova, Research Associate at the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation speaks with Ana Salazar, Head of Sustainability Division at AENA, the world’s largest airport operator in terms of passenger traffic. Despite the fact that aviation is one of the sectors worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, AENA last year announced a new climate strategy pledging to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, which is ten years ahead of the target set by the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe. What were the main drivers behind AENA’s climate strategy? What concrete measures is AENA implementing to reduce its CO2 and environmental footprint? What are some of the regulatory and financing gaps in the current EU framework that would need to be closed to enable airports to act as ‘enablers’ for the broader decarbonisation of the aviation value chain, including airlines? Listen to their conversation for answers to these questions! Read the main con

In its Order on 20 May 2020 the General Court in Nord Stream 2 v Parliament and Council ruled the application inadmissible. The case raises some important questions as to the standing requirements for private persons directly challenging EU acts before the EU courts. It appears that the main reason for refusal to grant the appellant standing to directly challenge the amendments to the 2009 Gas Market Directive stems from the fact that the EU act under challenge is a Directive that requires implementation at national level. This in turn, according to the General Court, implies that there is no ‘direct concern’. Nord Stream 2 v Parliament and Council is a case that turns largely on its facts and it may be that the General Court’s approach does not take this into consideration. This is a case where the intended effect of the amendment is to complicate one project, Nord Stream 2, and leave other comparable import pipelines unaffected. This podcast will examine the Order of the General Court and provide

This is a podcast of the series "Spot on Climate" of the Climate area of the Florence School of Regulation. In this podcast, Research Associate Albert FERRARI continues the conversation with Peter VIS, Senior Advisor at Rud Pedersen Public Affairs and Senior Research Associate at the School of Transnational Governance. This second episode focuses on the design and implementation of the upcoming EU proposal for Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), through a discussion on these two questions: - What advice would you give to the European Commission in developing its proposal? - Under what conditions could we do without it? The European Commission will be presenting in June 2021 a proposal for a CBAM for certain imported products to reduce the risk of carbon leakage, which is the risk of companies transferring production to countries that are less strict about emissions. With a CBAM, the price of imports would reflect more accurately their carbon content. This would ensure that the EU’s climate objectives

In this third episode of the ‘On The Right Track’ podcast series, Juan Montero, Professor at the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation speaks with Dr. Marco Kampp, Director of International Long-Distance Passenger Transport at Deutsche Bahn about the existing barriers and necessary solutions to boost the share of international long-distance passenger services in Europe. What does Deutsche Bahn expect from the European Year of Rail and what is the company doing in regards to increasing rail ridership across the continent? What are the legal, commercial and technical barriers, which hinder international rail passenger services? What kind of framework conditions will be necessary to ensure that investments channeled towards railways are fruitful and help to advance the EU’s modal shift objectives? What is the role of increased harmonisation at both the technical and economic levels for the provision of international long-distance passenger services? In view of the COVID-19 crisis, what are the mo

Zoë Knight, Managing Director and Group Head of the HSBC Centre of Sustainable Finance, shares her thoughts on the role of the Finance sector in the net-zero transition with Joana Freitas, Ambassador for the FSR Lights on Women initiative. The financial sector’s role in the global response to climate change will entail not only accelerating low carbon investments but also supporting the transition of carbon-intensive sectors. When it comes to investments in green renewable generation, investors’ appetites seem to exceed the volume of investable projects. Knight identifies a variety of reasons, highlighting that the “risk assessment for how strong the investment will contribute to solving climate goals isn't truly reflected yet”. On the other hand, the hard-to-abate sectors, including industry, heavy-duty transport and agriculture, account for around 40% of greenhouse gas emissions but still attract limited investment. In Knight's perspective, companies need to clearly demonstrate what their climate strategy i

In this second episode of the ‘On The Right Track’ podcast series, Juan Montero, Professor at the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation speaks with Alberto Mazzola, Executive Director at the Community of European Railways and Infrastructure Companies (CER), about the railway industry’s expectations in terms of EU regulatory developments during the European Year of Rail. How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the railway industry and how does this translate into the sector’s expectations for the European Year of Rail? What measures are necessary to increase the modal share of rail passenger services? Can competition help to increase ridership and achieve the European Green Deal objectives for rail? Could Europe experience the return of the night trains, which have seen increasing popularity during the pandemic as a substitute for short haul flights? Is the EU regulatory approach to night trains an experiment or a policy that is here to stay? What are the reasons behind the stagnating modal shar

This is the first podcast of the series "Spot on Climate" of the Climate area of the Florence School of Regulation. In this podcast, Research Associate Albert FERRARI converses with Peter VIS, Senior Advisor at Rud Pedersen Public Affairs and Senior Research Associate at the School of Transnational Governance. This first episode focuses on the rationale and the challenges behind the possible Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) through a discussion on these two questions: - What is the case for a CBAM? - How might it work? The European Commission will be presenting in June 2021 a proposal for a CBAM for certain imported products to reduce the risk of carbon leakage, which is the risk of companies transferring production to countries that are less strict about emissions. With a CBAM, the price of imports would reflect more accurately their carbon content. This would ensure that the EU’s climate objectives are not undermined by production relocating to countries with less ambitious policies. Listen to th

In this episode, Agneta Rising, Director General of the World Nuclear Association, joins Joana Freitas to discuss the role of nuclear energy in the energy transition. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2018 nuclear power provided 10% of global electricity supply and 25% of electricity supply in Europe. Although no new nuclear plants have been built in Europe in the last few years, Agneta Rising points out that the global scenario looks positive. In Asian countries, like India, China and South Korea, there is a growing number of new nuclear plants, while there are also newcomer countries, which is the case of United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Belarus and Bangladesh. Nuclear is a zero-carbon, dispatchable, baseload energy source, and in many cases at a very competitive cost. “We can see in countries that have used and started to use nuclear energy how they boosted their economy and how many jobs they also created”, Agneta Rising adds. However, in Europe, public opinion seems divided, especially after

In this podcast Professor Matthias Finger, Director of the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation, speaks to Matthew Daus, former Commissioner of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (2001-2010), and current Transport Technology Chair at the Transport Center of the City College of New York, and practicing tansportation lawyer specialised in new modes of transport, including Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). Tune in to their discussion to learn about the emergence of the transport network companies (TNCs) concept, how it transformed the taxi industry of New York over the past 20 years, and how technology pushed the regulatory framework to evolve. What are the learning lessons from the EU when it comes to regulating the next big revolutions in transport, namely MaaS and automation? How will MaaS look like 10 years from now?

In this launching episode of the ‘On The Right Track’ podcast series, dedicated to 2021 as the European Year of Rail, Juan Montero, Professor at the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation speaks with Elisabeth Werner, Director for Land Transport at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport, about the main regulatory priorities on the EU railways agenda. What were the motivating drivers behind the European Year of Rail, and what concrete EU initiatives can we expect in 2021? What measures should be pursued on the rail passenger front to increase the modal share of rail? Can the liberalisation of the EU railway passenger market contribute to advancing the European Green Deal objectives? What tools should be considered to improve the management of cross-border traffic and night train services? Is a breakthrough in policy necessary to boost the share of rail freight transport? What are the learning lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic as regards the resilience of rail t

In this podcast with Christopher Bremme (Linklaters, Berlin) and Julia Sack (Linklaters, Berlin), we focus on the increasing role of foreign investment controls in the EU with the so-called Screening Regulation, which came into effect in October 2020, and the impact of these mechanisms on the energy sector, particularly as it relates to Germany.

This podcast focuses on the latest developments in Case C-594/18 P: Austria v European Commission, a long-running legal saga surrounding the development of a new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in the UK, which sheds light on EU state aid rules and the interaction between the Euratom Treaty and the TFEU. As the Euratom Treaty does not contain state aid rules, to what extent do the principles of the TFEU apply when it comes to determining the compatibility of state aid to the nuclear sector? In 2014, the EC approved the UK’s plans to give state aid to support the construction of two EPR reactor units at Hinkley Point C, deeming it compatible with EU state aid guidelines, and thus the internal market. The basis of their approval was Art 107(3)(c) TFEU. The project, a joint venture between EDF and CGN, would be the first new nuclear power station in the UK in almost 20 years, and account for roughly 7% of the UK’s electricity supply. In the rare move of one MS challenging a state aid decision for anot

This is a podcast about the replicability of the project LIFE DICET in other carbon markets. The project LIFE DICET is co-financed by the EU LIFE programme and managed by FSR Climate. It supports the EU and the Member States in international cooperation for possible integration of carbon markets with 5 other ETS regulators, namely China, California, Québec, New Zealand and Switzerland. In the podcast, Albert Ferrari from FSR Climate converses with Professor Duan Maosheng, Director of the China Carbon Market Center of Tsinghua University, about the replicability of the project in China. Duan is extensively involved in the design and operation of China’s carbon markets and is actively contributing to the project LIFE DICET. More info: https://lifedicetproject.eui.eu/

In this episode, Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director-General, European Coordinator for Road Safety and Sustainable Mobility, DG MOVE, European Commission, joins Juan Montero, FSR Transport Part-time professor, to discuss Speed and Speed Management in Road Safety Policy. The discussion is a follow-up of the Executive Seminar with applied experts, researchers and stakeholders, which took place on the 8th of October. Mr. Baldwin and Prof. Montero discuss a number of highly relevant issues: importance of speed and speed management in the Safe System, future steps to improve speed management at the EU and national level and what could the EU do in the future.

In this talk, the FSR Director, Jean-Michel Glachant introduces a framework of five key building blocks (technology; energy policy; energy professionals; energy consumers; the grid) to explain why he thinks that local distribution system operators (DSOs) are back at the core of the power system today, and why the future remains uncertain.

In this special episode of Net Zero, Leonardo Meeus, Professor at Florence School of Regulation and Vlerick Business School, and Georg Zachmann, Senior Fellow at Bruegel, share their thoughts on how legislation and policy are enabling the energy transition in Europe. The special episode also highlights insights from an FSR online interview with Directorate-General for Energy, Ditte Juul Jørgensen, in which she discussed Europe’s green recovery strategy from the COVID-19 pandemic. Back in June 2019, the European Commission published the last energy package – the Clean Energy for all Europeans package – aimed at accelerating the energy transition and giving all Europeans access to secure, competitive and sustainable energy. After this new legislative package, in early 2020, Ursula Von der Leyen presented the European Green Deal, a policy manifesto aimed at making Europe climate neutral by 2050. In Georg Zachmann’s view there are three key building blocks to achieve this ambition – i) set a carbon pricing mech

In this episode, Violeta Mihalache, Director of Urban Survey Timisoara, joins us for a discussion on the rationale behind- and challenges towards a common European framework for sustainable urban mobility indicators (SUMI). We discuss a number of topical issues on the urban mobility agenda: from sustainable urban mobility planning, to indicators and data gathering, funding and financing issues, and not the least, the interrelation between SUMI and the European Green Deal and Climate Law objectives.

In this episode, Marylin Bastin, Head of Aviation Sustainability at EUROCONTROL joins us for a discussion on the European Green Deal and its implications for the aviation sector. We discuss critical issues on the European aviation agenda, including barriers to route optimisation and how the implementation of the Single European Sky can support the reduction in aviation emissions. Furthermore, we touch upon the measures that airports can implement to mitigate both air- and noise-pollution stemming from airplanes and airport operations. Not least, we discuss the future of aviation in the post-Covid-19 period: Can climate-resilient growth be achieved? Could Covid-19 be transformed into an opportunity for a more sustainable and resilient European aviation?

In this episode, Sonya Twohig, Director of Operations at ENTSO-e, joins Net Zero host Joana Freitas to discuss if the ownership of grid operators influences the delivery of the energy transition. Recently, some questions have been raised on which entities should own the grids. For example, in the UK, the Labour party announced a plan to take National Grid into public ownership (if it were elected Government). On the other hand, the Dutch Finance Minister has said he plans to privatize or sell off a stake in TenneT, as the company needs more equity to invest in grid upgrades. In Sony Twohig’s view, grid operators can work in a very positive way regardless their shareholder structure, as, in the end of the day, “what is really important is that the operation and the management of that grid is controlled and regulated by the regulatory authority that supports that grid”. Another issue that has been recently under discussion is the entry of relatively two new categories of shareholders: Pension Funds and State c