Cold Start for the Green Innovation Machine
by , Philippe Aghion, Reinhilde Veugelers on 23 November 2009
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Category: POLICY CONTRIBUTIONS
Topics: Climate change and energy
This Policy Contribution accompanies the Policy Brief, “No Green Growth Without Innovation”. Written by Senior Non-Resident Fellow Philippe Aghion, Senior Resident Fellow Reinhilde Veugelers and Researcher Clément Serre, this paper discusses the state of green innovation and goes into more depth in discussing the current problems in the area. Examining research and development, patent, and venture capital data, the authors point out that there is momentum for private investment in green technologies. However, they argue that, thus far, the implicit tax rate on energy in the EU27 is too low and fragmented, the carbon price in the EU Emissions Trading System is too volatile, and the public R&D expenditures dedicated to energy and environment are too low. They conclude that immediate state intervention is necessary, at least at the onset, to ensure that the ‘green innovation machine’ gets properly started.
European Voice: Dedicated to Climate Change?
by Reinhilde Veugelers on 29 October 2009
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Category: OPINION PIECES AND COLUMNS
Topics: Climate change and energy
In a pro/con piece opposing Luxembourgeois Green MEP Claude Turmes, Resident Fellow Reinhilde Veugelers argues that a commissioner dedicated to climate change is necessary in order to achieve a speedy and global response to climate change. She explains that tackling climate change requires a pro-innovation approach, one that would focus on the creation of a government framework that will provide new incentives for green technologies. Such an approach requires intense co-ordination and political power, and the establishment of a climate change commissioner could help in accomplishing those ends.
Beyond Copenhagen: A climate policymaker's handbook
by Juan Delgado, Stephen Gardner on 17 September 2009
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Category: BOOKS
Topics: Climate change and energy
It is still unclear what a post-Kyoto international regime to tackle climate change will look like. Negotiations on a post-2012 framework are revisiting questions that arose when the Kyoto Protocol was put in place – such as how targets can best be shared out, and how the different interests of rich and poor countries can be addressed – but policymakers must also face new realities. Scientific evidence shows that the climate policies formulated so far are unfit to deal with the magnitude of the challenge.
This book looks realistically at the options for a deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. It sets out some of the main ingredients that will have to be included for finalisation of an economically rational agreement that stands a real chance of addressing the threat to the climate system. It critically analyses the European Union's climate policies before reviewing the key elements of such an agreement: carbon markets, flexible mechanisms for transferring money and technology to developing countries, innovation, and the effective enforcement of a global climate deal.
The contributors to the volume are Joseph E Aldy, Valentina Bosetti, Carlo Carraro, Juan Delgado, Denny Ellerman, Dieter Helm, Axel Michaelowa, Robert N Stavins and Massimo Tavoni. The French Ministère de l‘Ecologie, de l‘Energie, du Développement durable et de la Mer, under the auspices of the 2008 French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, contributed financial support to the production of this volume.fileadmin/files/admin/media/press_clippings/2009/Analysis_will_trade_lead_or_lag_the_recovery_110809.pdf
Memos to the new Commission- Europe's economic priorities 2010-2015
by Zsolt Darvas, Jürgen von Hagen, Jean Pisani-Ferry, Bruno van Pottelsberghe , Lars-Hendrik Röller, Indhira Santos, André Sapir, Reinhilde Veugelers, Nicolas Véron, Jakob von Weizsäcker on 27 August 2009
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Category: BOOKS
Topics: Budgetary and monetary policies, Climate change and energy, Competition and single market, Currencies and International finance, Emerging economies and development, Financial markets and regulation, European and global governance, Labour, migration and ageing, Research, innovation and growth, Trade, investment and competitiveness, New Member States, Enlargement and Neighbourhood
These Memos, addressed to the next Commission President and to the new European commissioners, are written by Bruegel Scholars and edited by Senior Research Fellow André Sapir and focus on key economic aspects of EU policy-making.
The new Commission will enter office at a challenging time for Europe, the EU and the Commission itself. The crisis has clearly exposed weaknesses in EU governance which need to be addressed and the memos make a number of concrete recommendations of relevance for major economic fields, as well as for the EU and Commission as a whole.
Addressing the next Commission President, André Sapir and Jean Pisani-Ferry propose that effective leadership will be necessary to give strategic direction to the Commission, ’you [the president] should therefore be ready to fight for ideas and take risks" (JPF-AS). The Memos suggest that the EU will need to assert a position on commonly agreed rules, propose new solutions and, importantly, has an opportunity now to redefine the European narrative in the global arena.
Focusing on the most important economic questions at EU level, the Bruegel memos are intended to be strategic, outlining the state of affairs that will be met by the new Commission and the key challenges and priorities they will need to consider over the next five years.
The new food equation: do EU policies add up?
by Juan Delgado, Indhira Santos on 19 July 2008
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Category: POLICY BRIEFS
Topics: Climate change and energy, Emerging economies and development, Trade, investment and competitiveness
This policy brief, Juan Delgado and Indhira Santos look at how EU policies should be adjusted to the higher food prices. The brief makes three policy recommendations: innovation in biofuels should be encouraged but biofuels targets should be abandoned as they are expensive and distort agricultural and energy markets. Freer trade is needed for both efficiency and food security reasons. But more open markets will further increase the price of food for importing countries. An immediate and sustained aid increase should therefore be agreed.