Welcome to our Spring issue from the Project Director!

We are now half way through the project and since December the team have been working hard to consolidate all the hard work at COP26. Since the last update, the geopolitical situation has changed dramatically. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has once again laid bare the economic, social and environmental costs of continued use of fossil fuels. Policymakers in European countries and around the globe now need to rapidly accelerate the green energy transition. We hope our work can support them in achieving this. Simon Sharpe shared some thoughts on the topic during a recent lecture.

To support the findings of our flagship report published in Glasgow, we released several case studies looking at a range of topics, including the uptake of wind and solar energy and policy strategies to stimulate low-carbon steel and electric vehicles.

Our global team has also gone through several changes which are detailed below.  

Dr Jean-Francois Mercure   

New case studies now online

To support findings from the EEIST flagship report released at COP26 (The New Economics of Innovation and Transition: Evaluating Opportunities and Risks), the EEIST team published several appendices examining:

• Wind energy in the UK and Brazil
• Solar PV in Germany and China
• Transforming lighting efficiency in India
• Prospects and strategies for electric vehicles
• Prospects and strategies for low-carbon steel

Updates from our International Partners

Brazil

Risk & Opportunity in Green Project Evaluation Tuesday (5th October 2021). During this meeting, the Brazilian CPR has met with representatives of the Banco Nacional Do Desenvolvimento (BNDES), the leading Brazilian development bank. The meeting was a great opportunity to deepen BNDES funding process, and their needs in terms of transition risk-assessment.

Modeling Approaches to Energy Transition (Tuesday 18th January 2022). During this second meeting with BNDES representatives, CPR members have presented their ongoing modelling work, focusing on energy transition, sustainable agriculture and land-use and macro-financial risk. A discussion on complementarities between EEIST modelling approaches and BNDES assessment needs has followed.

Risk and Opportunities in Solar Energy (Wednesday 23rd March 2022). During this meeting, the Brazil CPR team (together with EEIST members) has met with ABSOLAR, leading Brazilian association in solar power, to discuss their engagement in EEIST project. Several Brazilian government members were also present, as well as solar energy experts and scholars.

China

Our work with Chinese policy makers and analysts is in a detailed co-production stage. We are working closely with partners on modelling related to: (i) comparing the existing emissions trading scheme, with a carbon tax, and/or emissions standards in the power sector; (ii) bringing empirically validated energy technology costs curves into influential Chinese modelling; (iii) high-quality economic growth in green sectors; and (iv) the labour market impacts of the energy transition; among other topics. We are looking forward to our next large community of practice meeting in China, which will be held in late June, presenting preliminary findings of some of our modelling work; more details coming soon.

India 

The 4th India Community of Practice (CPR) was held on 24th March 2024 to share the recent outcomes of the EEIST project. Dr. Matt Ives, Oxford Martin School Programme for Post-Carbon Transition, presented a paper on “Empirically grounded technology forecasts and the energy transition” and Dr. Pablo Salas, the University of Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance, and Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership presented a review on “Policy appraisal methods in India, Brazil, and China”. The CPR was attended and well received by representatives from Ministry, Industry, researchers, and academicians.

Staff changes around the globe

Several people have joined or are leaving the EEIST team:

• Matthew Ives is leaving the University of Oxford team to work in the Australian Government. He has been leading the construction of new economic models. Peter Barbrook-Johnson will take over.
• EEIST Programme Manager, Sarah Thomas, is leaving. She will be succeeded by Jacqui Richards who has already worked as Project Officer for EEIST.
• Serguey Maximov has joined UCL's EEIST team. He's a mechinal engineer and PhD(c) in Energy Systems at the University of Edinburgh. His work has been focused on modelling and optimsing energy systems.
• Simon Sharpe, Director of Economics at UN Climate Action Champions, will be joining EEIST on a temporary and part-time basis.  He will be supporting with policy engagement and communications. 
• Fernanda Senra de Moura has joined the EEIST team at Oxford. Her research focuses on political institutions and environmental policy in developing countries.
• Saswata Chaudhury and Vidhu Kapur have joined the research team at TERI (India).
  
  Mr Chaudhury has a Master’s degree in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is well versed in data analysis and economic modelling. At TERI, currently, he is working on projects focusing on low carbon/net zero growth, energy demand assessment, energy transition, carbon border adjustment and a just transition.
  
  Ms Kapur is development research professional. She has contributed to several analytical works to formulate, implement and evaluate policies and programmes in India. In addition to her training in conducting field-based studies using quantitative and qualitative methodologies, she has hands-on experience of studying the nuances and designing strategies to mainstream the marginalized communities.

PLEDGES now part of the EEIST community

Anglia Ruskin University’s Global Sustainability Institute is now hosting a new Marie-Sklowodska Curie Fellowship which brings Dr Ilaria Perissi’s project PLEDGES into the EEIST family. PLEDGES is now assessing whether there are sufficient policies in place across each Member State to achieve a net zero transition and the Green Deal targets.

Watch: Tipping Fossil Fuels out of the Global Economy

In early March, Simon Sharpe (Director of Economics, UN Climate Action Champions), gave a timely lecture at the University of Exeter about how to tip fossil fuels out of the global economy. Based on findings from the EEIST work and his own experience, he presented how targeted international cooperation can help countries make low-carbon transition more quickly. Watch the recording.

Sarah Royston to present findings on European energy policy modelling at event in June

Sarah Royston (part of the EEIST team at ARU, working on the EU-based research) will be presenting findings at the Energy Research and Social Science conference in Manchester in June. The paper, with co-authors Chris Foulds, Aled Jones and Roberto Pasqualino is entitled “Masters of the Machinery: The politics of economic modelling within European energy policy”.

Watch: Michael Grubb presents a focus on insights from EEIST

Michael Grubb from UCL will present a hybrid seminar on "This changes everything?": the new economics of innovation and transition in a time of converging crises  on Thursday 7th April at Oxford Martin School. He will focus on insights from varied research including some findings from EEIST. There will also be time to discuss the IPCC Mitigation Report.  To watch this event register here.  

Operationalising positive tipping points towards global sustainability

A team including Timothy M. Lenton (University of Exeter) and Simon Sharpe published a new paper in Global Sustainability on how to operationalise positive tipping points to accelerate the transition to sustainability.

For more of the EEIST team's outputs, please  refer to our website page on outputs. 

Our newsletter isbe published quarterly: please send news and events to Jacqui Richards: J.Richards2@exeter.ac.uk by 17th June at the latest.  The next newsletter will be published at the end of June