IAERE Third Annual Conference
20-21 February 2015, Padua

Plenary Keynote Lectures

Paul Ekins - Carolyn Fischer

February 20th, 10.30

Palazzo Bo, Via 8 Febbraio 1848, 35122 Padua

Paul Ekins

University College London
Energy and Climate policy in the EU

Presentation

Paul Ekins has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of London and is Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy, and Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, at University College London. He has been a Co-Director of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) since its establishment in 2004, leading its Energy Systems and Modelling theme, and Energy Systems theme, in Phases 1 and 2 respectively. In UKERC Phase 3 he is Deputy Director, leading the theme on Energy Resources. He is also a Fellow of the Energy Institute; a Senior Consultant to Cambridge Econometrics; and he leads UCL's participation in the EPSRC SUPERGEN consortium on hydrogen and fuel cells, and on a major project as part of a recent EPSRC Bioenergy Challenge. He is a member of Ofgem's high-level Sustainable Development Advisory Group, and a member of the Expert Panel of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment. From 2002-2008 he was a Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. From 1997-2005 he was a specialist adviser to the Environmental Audit Committee of the House of Commons, from 2003-2007 was a Member of the Government's Sustainable Energy Policy Advisory Board, and in 2007 was a Specialist Adviser to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Climate Change Bill. Since 2003 he has been a member, and is now Chairman, of the Judging Panel, UK Ashden Sustainable Energy Awards, and he is on the Judging Panel of the Rushlight and Rosenblatt New Energy Awards. He was a member in 2010-11 of two Ministerial Advisory Panels, on the Green Deal (DECC) and on the Natural Environment White Paper (DEFRA). In 2011 he was appointed Vice-Chairman of the DG Environment Commissioner's High-Level Economists Expert Group on Resource Efficiency, and in 2012 a member of the European Commission's European Resource Efficiency Platform. In 1994 Paul Ekins received a Global 500 Award 'for outstanding environmental achievement' from the United Nations Environment Programme.

Paul Ekins' academic work focuses on the conditions and policies for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy; in 2012-14 he was the Chair of the UCL Green Economy Policy Commission, which published its report, Greening the Recovery, in February 2014. He is an authority on a number of areas of energy-environment-economy interaction and environmental policy, including: sustainable development assessment methodologies; scenarios, modelling and forecasting; resource productivity; sustainable energy use; the adjustment of national accounts to take account of environmental impacts; environmental economic instruments and ecological tax reform; sustainable consumption; and environment and trade. He is the author of numerous papers, book-chapters and articles in a wide range of journals, and has written or edited twelve books, including Global Warming and Energy Demand (Routledge, 1995) and Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: the Prospects for Green Growth (Routledge, London, 2000). He is editor or co-editor of the books Understanding the Costs of Environmental Regulation in Europe (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2009), Trade, Globalization, and Sustainability Impact Assessment: A Critical Look at Methods and Outcomes (Earthscan, London, 2009), Carbon-Energy Taxation: Lessons from Europe (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009), Hydrogen Energy: Economic and Social Challenges (Earthscan, London, 2010) and Energy 2050: the Transition to a Secure, Low-Carbon Energy System for the UK (Earthscan, London, 2011); Environmental Tax Reform: A Policy for Green Growth (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011); and Global Energy: Issues, Potentials and Policy Implications (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014 forthcoming).


February 21st, 11.30
Department of Economics, Torre C3 Economia, Via Ugo Bassi 1, 35131 Padua

Carolyn Fischer
Resources for the Future and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei
The interplay between international trade and climate policy, options for avoiding carbon leakage
Presentation

Carolyn Fischer is a Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future and Associate Director of its Center for Climate and Electricity Policy. Her research focuses on policy mechanisms and modeling tools that cut across a variety of environmental and resource management issues. In the areas of climate change and energy policy, she has published articles on designing cap-and-trade programs, fuel economy standards, renewable portfolio standards, energy efficiency programs, technology policies, the Clean Development Mechanism, and the evaluation of international climate policy commitments. A recent focus of her research is the interplay between international trade and climate policy, options for avoiding carbon leakage, and the implications for energy-intensive, trade-exposed sectors. In areas of natural resources management, she has addressed issues of eco-certification, wildlife conservation, invasive species, and biotechnology, with particular emphasis on the opportunities and challenges posed by international trade.
Fischer joined RFF in 1997, after earning her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She is currently a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow of the European Commission, visiting at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) in Venice, Italy; a Visiting Professor at Gothenburg University; a fellow of the CESifo Research Network; and a member of Environment Canada's Environmental Economics and Policy Research Network. Previously, she has been a Dahrendorf Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics; a UCE3 Senior Fellow at the University of California at Santa Barbara; and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She has also taught at Johns Hopkins University, consulted for the World Bank Group, and was a staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, has been Associate Editor of Resource and Energy Economics and currently serves on the editorial board of the International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics.

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