Welcome to the spring issue from the EEIST team!

Dear EEIST Community,

Welcome to the EEIST spring newsletter. We hope that everyone had an enjoyable and restful Easter. 

The EEIST team have been extremely busy over the last couple of months. We are very excited to have launched our latest report in Berlin.  This is the team's third report entitled New Economic Models of Energy Innovation and Transition. To ensure the report reaches the right audience, we have been working with Greenhouse PR agency, who have designed a digital campaign to promote the work.  You may have seen some of EEIST's posts on Twitter and LinkedIn.

We have also had numerous events over the past few months, including the first opportunity for representatives from the majority of our partners to meet in person. Details of these events can be found below. 

We look forward to updating you next time.

With best wishes from 

The EEIST Team

EEIST's third report has now been published

New Economic Models of Energy Innovation and Transition: Addressing new questions and providing better answers

This report focuses on new economic models of innovation and transition.  This report incorporates case studies from all of EEIST's territorities in Brazil, China, India and the EU as well as the UK.  This third report will build on growing EEIST communities and networks in each of the territories worked in, and potentially even wider.

To download or read the full report click here.  This report is also available in Chinese and Portuguese. 

Updates from EEIST's International Partners

Brazil

EEIST's Brazil team had a successful week of in-person​ workshops​ in February in Brasilia​ and Rio de Janeiro with BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank). Please see below in the Events section for more details.

China

Cambridge Econometrics and University of Oxford are organising training sessions of EEIST modelling. These sessions in China will take place in June. More details will follow.

India

The India team have organised a Think20 event in March in New Delhi where they presented modeling analysis for India.  The team are also in the process of planning capacity building sessions in India with Cambridge Econometrics and TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) in May.

UK

The UK team organised a workshop on 'Evidence of a global electric vehical tipping point', in February.  This workshop was presented by Associate Professor Jean-Francois Mercure, and his colleague Dr Aileen Lamb, previously of Macau University, who both currently work at the World Bank.  

Europe

The EU team held a workshop on 11th January entitled:  'EEIST EU CPR: lessons from policy appraisal processes and policy principles' . A summary of this has been completed and circulated to all participants. In addition, a summary of this is being written for The Mint magazine, which will be shared in the next edition.

Welcome to the Project

We wish a warm welcome to Ben Hinder. 

Ben is Research Fellow at University College London’s Institute for Sustainable Resources and joined UCL in January 2023.

Ben's work focuses on transformative frameworks for understanding the future, and as a former Chapter Scientist for the IPCC’s 6th Assessment, he has worked across disciplines in the realm of climate mitigation policy research. His background is diverse, with work in ecology and environmental management consultancy and a masters in ecological economics, he brings critical perspectives to bear on the challenge of policy for net zero. Ben is familiar with EEIST, having worked with the team in the first year.

Also we would like to extend a warm welcome to Dr Yaroslav Melekh. 

Dr Yaroslav Melekh is Research Fellow at University College London’s Institute for Sustainable Resources and joined UCL in January 2023. 

Yaroslav’s experience comprises a combination of academic, consultant and international development work. His recent posts include programme management of climate and environmental development aid portfolio in Ukraine at the Embassy of Sweden in Kyiv and Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). He dealt with energy efficiency and district heating infrastructure projects and policies for climate adaptation and nature-based solutions. As a consultant, he advised on climate finance, investments in renewables and biomass value chain development to EU, USAID, NORAD, and EBRD projects. Yaroslav’s research interests sit in access to capital, cost of capital, and policy instruments for de-risking investments in renewables in developing countries.

Goodbye & Good Luck

Paul Drummond left UCL in January and has gone on to work at Redwheel. We wish him well for the future. 

EEIST at Brazilian Workshops 9th &14th February 2023

The series of engagement events in Brazil early in 2023 were driven by the publication of the third major report of the EEIST programme. The report focused on presenting fifteen case studies and the application of New Economic Modelling methods as envisioned by the programme, combined with the favourable opportunity determined by the elections of a new government, which values the work of the EEIST programme positively.

Brazilian Energy transition: "How the choice of models makes a difference for policy” - February 9th 2023, Brasilia -  During the meeting, members of the EEIST's Brazilian Community of Practice presented the results of their investigation to key Brazilian stakeholders, including high-level Government representatives, such as Esther Dweck (Minister of Public Management and Innovation and Professor at UFRJ) and Graeme Cummings (Head of Trade & Economic Policy, UK Embassy). The meeting was a unique opportunity to highlight the key contribution of the EEIST project in shaping future trajectories of technological adoption and energy transition in Brazil.

Brazilian Energy transition: "How the choice of models makes a difference for policy” - February 14th 2023, Rio de Janeiro at BNDES - During the meeting, held at the facilities of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), members of EEIST's Brazilian Community of Practice presented the results of their investigation to high-level members of BNDES. The meeting highlighted several important overlaps among the visions of both EEIST and BNDES, and laid the ground for several future collaborations in the fields of energy transition and sustainable agriculture policies.

EEIST Meeting - 31 January 2023

On 31st January the UK EEIST team met at UCL to discuss not only the progress on the project so far but also to shape the agenda for the future. There were a set of insightful presentations from Dr Femke Nijsse and Sumit Kothari on the question of “Is a solar revolution inevitable?” The team also spent time co-developing plans for the final reports.

Wilton Park Conference - 13 - 15 March 2023

The Wilton Park Conference, which took place between the 13th and 15th March, presented the first opportunity for members of the EEIST consortium, spread across India, China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, to meet in person. The conference encouraged new relations to be forged and existing ones to be strengthened both within the EEIST community, and with representatives from governments and international organisations. Three days of structured discussions consolidated understanding of the developments in each region, including key findings and challenges faced over the three years of research conducted thus far, as well as conversations pertaining to the future of the EEIST programme. A summary of the discussions as well as cross-cutting themes which spanned conversations of the conference will be presented in the Wilton Park meeting report soon.

EEIST Consortium Meeting - 16 March 2023

The EEIST consortium meeting took place on the 16th of March, 2023, in London, and due to the Covid pandemic, it was the first time that all the consortium partners from Brazil, China, India, Italy and the UK met in person. The partners took the opportunity to reflect upon the results achieved to date, and lessons learnt and discussed ideas for the project going forward.  Also, the plans for introductory training on modelling for policymakers in the partner countries were discussed and are expected to be conducted in the summer of 2023.

Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue - 27 March 2023

This event was hosted by EEIST and launched the latest EEIST report, New economic models of energy innovation and transition. It also incorporated a Q&A discussion on  the report's findings and the policy and analysis lessons for Germany and Europe.

Speakers who attended the launch event from EEIST were: Dr Peter Barbrook-Johnson, Simon Sharpe, Dr Cristina Peñasco and Dr Fernanda Senra de Moura. Professor Karsten Neuhoff, who leads the Climate Policy Department at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) was a guest presenter. 

To find out more or watch the recording of this event check out the page on our website

EEIST Member Peter-Barbrook-Johnson featured on front page of CEN (China Energy News)

China Energy News (CEN) conducted an interview with Dr Pete Barbrook-Johnson, EEIST- modelling lead and Departmental Lecturer at the University of Oxford. The interview was covered on CEN's front page in March.

In the interview, Dr Barbrook-Johnson cited key findings of the new report, which is the EEIST project's latest publication. The report: New economic models of energy innovation and transtion, suggests that China’s rise as a green product exporter in the past two decades is successful, having been even more powerful than its rise as the leading global manufacturer. China’s scaling EV sector, under a supply train without constraints, will undertake the transition with a breakeven, revenue-neutral subsidy policy that closes the cost gap between EVs and ICEVs. Pete also thinks that UK will continue to foster research providing effective instructions on China’s progressive implementation of dual-carbon roadmaps.

China Energy News (CEN) is affiliated to the People's Daily, which is party newspaper and the most influential news angency in the energy field in China. It has a wide readership which ranges from the government, academia to enterprises.

A new publication: AgriLOVE: agriculture, land-use and technical change in an evolutionary, agent-based model.

A new publication: Coronese, M., Occelli, M., Lamperti, F., & Roventini, A. (2023). AgriLOVE: agriculture, land-use and technical change in an evolutionary, agent-based model. Ecological Economics, 208, 107756.

Read it here

Five Times Faster by Simon Sharpe

Five Times Faster is an inside story from Simon Sharpe, who has spent ten years at the forefront of climate change policy and diplomacy. In our fight to avoid dangerous climate change, science is pulling its punches, diplomacy is picking the wrong battles, and economics has been fighting for the other side. This provocative and engaging book sets out how we should rethink our strategies and reorganise our efforts in the fields of science, economics, and diplomacy, so that we can act fast enough to stay safe. For more details click here

Our newsletter is published quarterly: please send news and events to Sarah Board: s.board@exeter.ac.uk by 12th June at the latest.  The next newsletter will be published at the end of June 2023.