Newsletter

How can strong implementation tools enhance climate and energy governance?

Publishing date
11 September 2023
Authors
Simone Tagliapietra
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title

The European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen has successfully pivoted the EU towards climate neutrality. With the Green Deal, the EU has set clear and ambitious climate targets and has put substantial legislation and funding in place to reach them. Nonetheless, we see clouds on the horizon of Europe’s green transition. 

EU decarbonisation is indeed set to become politically way more challenging, namely as it strongly deals with sectors such as transport and buildings. To safeguard the Green Deal in the coming years, the EU needs a much more solid energy and climate governance than it currently has. 

Five priorities for the next EU institutional cycle should include: 1) to progressively bring all emissions under an ETS and ensure the effectiveness of the EU climate policy. ETS and ETS-2 will cover 3/4 of EU emissions by 2030; 2) to launch preparations for an EU Green Investment Plan of €180 billion between 2024 and 2030; 3) to take energy and climate governance to heads of state and government level in order to increase policy coordination and political ownership – by establishing a group of European energy and climate sherpas; 4) to establish a European Energy Agency aimed at providing reliable and consistent data to underpin policy choices; 5) to create an Independent Network System Operator aimed at driving transmission network development and operation based on a principle of European cost minimisation. 

The EU cannot afford to have a grand climate and energy strategy and at the same time lack the implementation tools. This endangers the whole decarbonisation process, particularly in a less-auspicious political climate. These proposals can push a profound debate in this space ahead of the upcoming European elections.

The Why Axis is a weekly newsletter distributed by Bruegel, bringing you the latest research on European economic policy. 

About the authors

  • Simone Tagliapietra

    Simone Tagliapietra is a Senior fellow at Bruegel.

    He is also a Part-time professor at the Florence School of Transnational Governance (STG) of the European University Institute and an Adjunct professor at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Europe of The Johns Hopkins University.

    His research focuses on the EU climate and energy policy, and on its industrial and social dimensions. With a record of numerous policy and scientific publications, also in leading journals such as Nature and Science, he is the author of Global Energy Fundamentals (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and co-author of The Macroeconomics of Decarbonisation (Cambridge University Press, 2024).

    On the basis of his policy and scientific production, Dr. Tagliapietra regularly supports EU and national institutions in the development of their public policies in the field of climate and energy, also through regular interaction with public decision-makers in EU and national institutions, as well as through regular parliamentary testimonies in the European Parliament and various national parliamentary assemblies inside and outside Europe, such as the French Senate, the UK House of Lords and the US Senate. His columns and policy work are widely published and cited in leading international media.

    Dr. Tagliapietra also is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Clean Air Task Force (CATF) and Senior associate of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. He holds a PhD in International Political Economy from the Catholic University of Milan, where he previously graduated under the supervision of Professor Alberto Quadrio Curzio and where he also served as an Assistant professor (tenure-track) until 2024. Born in the Dolomites in 1988, he speaks Italian, English and French.

Theme
Energy and climate policy
Keyword
European Green Deal eu governance WhyAxis newsletter
Language
English

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