FSR Climate online debate will look at the perspectives and challenges of competitiveness and carbon leakage in carbon markets.

Moderator:

Simone Borghesi, Director, FSR Climate (European University Institute)

Speakers:

• Christian Egenhofer, Head of the Energy and Climate programme; Director of Energy Climate House, CEPS
• Milan Elkerbout, Research Fellow, Energy and Climate Change, CEPS
• Matti Liski, Professor, Department of Economic, Aalto University, Helsinki

In December 2015, the Paris Agreement was agreed by 195 nations as a historic agreement to combat climate change and unleash actions and investment towards a low carbon, resilient and sustainable future. It is for the first time to bring all nations into a common cause based on their past, current and future responsibilities. There is little doubt that market instruments will play a crucial role in achieving the long-term goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. Implemented correctly, they can help nations to achieve their nationally determined contributions (NDC) in a cost-effective way, increase flexibility and spur mitigation ambitions.

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement builds up a foundation for international cooperation through market mechanisms and inspires countries to assess options according to their own capacities. An important next step in advancing the Paris Agreement is to materialize the content of Article 6 through, for example, formulating rules and regulations for the international cooperation of carbon markets. To identify opportunities for and challenges to building up the cooperation architecture, we organise this one-hour live debate bringing together three high-level experts to discuss the perspectives and challenges of international cooperation on carbon markets.

This debate is carried out under the LIFE SIDE project aiming at supporting European policy makers with the design and implementation of the new EU ETS legislation.

Speaker’s bios

Christian Egenhofer has more than 20 years’ experience working with EU institutions on numerous policy areas. Over the last decade he has been specialising in EU energy and climate change policy, with a particular focus on the EU energy, climate and transport policies. He is currently Senior Fellow and Head of the Energy, Climate and Environment Programme at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), a Brussels-based think tank. Christian is also Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium) and Natolin (Poland), SciencesPo (Paris/France) and LUISS University in Rome/Italy. From 1997 to 2010 he was Senior Research Fellow and Jean-Monnet Lecturer at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy at the University of Dundee in Scotland/UK (part-time). Christian Egenhofer holds a Master’s degree in Administration from the University of Konstanz as well as a Public Law degree.

Milan Elkerbout is a Research Fellow at CEPS Energy Climate House. His research focuses on EU climate policy, in particular the EU Emissions Trading System. He has been closely involved in analysing the EU ETS Phase 4 revision processes, with specific focus on environmental ambition, carbon leakage and free allocation, competitiveness, and market functioning. He frequently participates in events on these topics, together with policy makers and civil society stakeholders, both at CEPS as well as at EU institutions and other EU member states.

Other topics of interest include industrial transformation and decarbonisation, mobility, state aid control, Energy Union governance, and the impacts of Brexit. His academic background is in Political Economy and European Studies. Before starting at CEPS in 2014, Milan Elkerbout studied at the London School of Economics, SciencesPo Paris, and Maastricht University.

Matti Liski is a Professor of Economics at Aalto University School of Business. His also an affiliate at MIT-CEEPR, University of Cambridge EPRG, CESifo Munich, and has been a visiting professor at Toulouse School of Economics. Liski is an award-winning teacher, with experience ranging from principles of economics and executive education to advanced international doctoral courses and summer schools on specialized topics. His research focus is both theoretical and empirical microeconomics with applications in industrial organization, public policy, energy markets, and climate change.

Liski has given several keynote lectures in scientific conferences, served as a board member in foundations and scientific associations, and has held several editorial duties in journals, such as the Scandinavian Journal of Economics. His research has appeared in journals such as Journal of European Economic Association, Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.”

In this webinar, Hielke Hijmans from the Centre for Information Policy Leadership and Brussels Privacy Hub will analyse the potential impact of GDPR on the energy sector.

The new European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), applicable as of 25 May 2018 in all Member States, has heralded a major reform of the EU data protection framework. Designed to harmonise data privacy laws throughout Europe, to protect and empower EU citizens’ data privacy and to reshape the way organisations across the region – both public and private – approach data privacy, the new set of rules have posed considerable challenges of compliance across the sector. So, what does the regulation introduce, and what are the implications for the energy sector?

Seven years in the making, the new regulation replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC which, up to this point, had set the minimum standards for processing data in the EU. With the GDPR, several rights have been considerably strengthened – individuals will have greater power to demand companies to reveal or delete personal data being held; regulators will be able to work in concert across the EU for the first time on this issue as opposed to having to launch separate actions in each jurisdiction, and with far more punitive consequences. Given that energy companies are increasingly becoming data companies, harnessing energy data and personal data as a tool for energy efficiency mechanisms, the impact on the energy sector will be wide-ranging.

Register here

This webinar will look at the development of the governance structure of the internal energy market through the lens of the EU network codes and guidelines. These EU-wide rules govern all cross-border electricity market transactions and system operations. Does the governance structure employed in the development of these codes meet the criteria of good governance – namely transparency, participation and accountability? Saskia Lavrijssen and Thomas Kohlbacher from Tilburg University will jointly assess this issue in the webinar. In particular, they will focus on the extent to which input from stakeholders is taken into account in the network code development process and the legal instruments which can facilitate or hinder this process. Are there adequate legal accountability mechanisms in place to ensure effective network governance? Does the framework need to be revised?

According to Lavrijssen and Kohlbacher, the current legal accountability mechanisms are insufficient to guarantee adequate responsiveness to stakeholder input, due to the rigid standing criteria for direct actions at the European Court of Justice against network codes adopted as delegated acts by the Commission. The possibility for judicial review as regards the roles of various network members in the development of network codes is also curtailed, in particular regarding soft law instruments used by ACER and ENTSO-E.

Do you agree? Should stakeholder committees as well as ACER play a greater role in the development of network codes?

Webinar with Saskia Lavrijssen & Thomas Kohlbacher (TILEC)

18 June 12:00 – 13:00 pm CEST

FSR Energy Union Law Webinar Series

FSR Energy Union Law launches a Webinar Series: Extending the Energy Acquis beyond the European Union ­ Institutional Challenges

Speaker: Professor Henrik Bjørnebye (Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, University of Oslo)

The ambitious Energy Union policy is about to result in an ambitious EU energy law. A complex regulatory framework for internal electricity and gas markets necessitates sector specific institutions capable of facilitating supervision and enforcement of the law. Through cooperation agreements such as the EEA Agreement and the Energy Community Treaty, the EU´s internal energy market comprises more than just EU Member States. This situation raises challenges for the implementation of both substantive rules and institutional arrangements in non-EU Member States.

In this webinar, Professor Bjørnebye will, in particular, focus on the institutional challenges arising as a result of the establishment of specific EU energy sector institutions such as ACER and ENTSO-E (and, correspondingly, ENTSO-G). In particular, the question arises as to how cooperation between the EU and non-EU Member States could be structured for EU institutions with decision-making powers without voting rights for the non-EU Member States, i.e. ACER. Professor Bjørnebye will primarily focus on the EEA Agreement, but similar challenges may arise under the Energy Community cooperation and, in the coming years it may also potentially impact a cooperation agreement with the UK post-Brexit.

Watch the recording

And stay tuned for our next webinar on network codes on 18 June at 12.00 CEST with Saskia Lavrijssen (Tilburg University)

This online debate will discuss three of the most contentious issues regarding new governance of renewables. The European Parliament and the Council are discussing the proposals presented in November 2016 by the European Commission on the energy and climate targets for the next decade. Renewable energies continue to be in the limelight, since they can help to decarbonise the energy sector, increase security of supply and provide new business opportunities for the European economy.

However, the two European co-legislators expressed different positions in the past few months. Join us to address the following questions:

• RES target level for 2030 – how ambitious shall Europe be?
• Integration of RES into the electricity market – is priority dispatch still needed? is the current market design providing fair treatment to RES?
• Cross-border participation in support schemes – do Member States think beyond narrow national interests when promoting the deployment of RES?

These and other questions will be addressed by a high level panel made up of academics, representatives of the institutions and professional practitioners.

An interactive Q&A section with the audience will follow the panel debate.

Moderator:

• Nicolò Rossetto, Research Associate at FSR

Panellists:

• Mario Ragwitz, Professor at the Fraunhofer ISI
• Alberto Pototschnig, Director of ACER
• Dirk Hendricks, Senior Policy Advisor at European Renewable Energies Federation (EREF)

Register here

The online debate gathers experts, academia and policy makers. It will be introduced by Susanne Nies on the state of play of energy poverty in the EU, but also active customers in the EU, moderated and commented by Leonardo Meeus, FSR. A Q&A with the audience will follow, for a total event duration of 1 hour’15.

The Clean Energy package for all Europeans rightly emphasizes the central place of the customer, for who dynamic prices are needed, and who should be empowered to participate in all markets. The active customer can be seen as the modern and digital citizen, supportive to the energy transition, keen on participating in change. However, around 11 %[1] of the EUs 510 million inhabitants are energy poor, vulnerable, and expect from new legislation to protect them, as energy is a public basic good.  Some governments claim regulated prices to be the solution to address energy poverty. But avoiding price signals will prevent from active customers to rise.

• Are measures for active customers negative for vulnerable customers?
• What about other incentives for ending energy poverty?
• Is the newly established energy poverty observatory a good step on the EU fight against energy poverty?
• What targeted approach is suitable and what models do we see in EU?
• What are the provisions for active and for vulnerable customers in the new package?
• What should be emphasised in addition?
• What are best solutions to end energy poverty and vulnerability of customers?

Panellists

• Anna Colucci, Head of Retail, DG ENER
• Anne Vadasz Nilsson, Vice President, CEER
• Branislava Marsenic Maksimovic, ECRB Natural Gas Expert, Energy Community Secretariat
• Elizabeth Errington, Senior Policy Researcher, Citizens Advice
• Theresa Griffin, MEP

Introduction and moderation

• Leonardo Meeus, Professor at Vlerick Business School and FSR
• Susanne Nies, ENTSO-E

Register here

[1] See EC study 2015 on energy poverty