Energy Policy and Climate Policy

Loyola de Palacio Chair

The Loyola de Palacio Chair, created in the honour of Loyola de Palacio who, as Commissioner, played such a crucial role in the field of energy policy, will promote much needed research in this area, mustering academic knowledge and analytical skills in all the social sciences so well represented at the EUI.

The Chair focuses on the connected fields of energy economics, energy law, energy regulation, energy geo-politics, energy sources, public opinion acceptability of energy policies; the EU Energy Regulation, energy and environment; liberalisation and security of supply, the EU Emission Trading Scheme, incentive-based regulation in the energy sector, institutional setting, market power, retail competition, network investments for the internal energy market.

Its objectives are to produce analytical studies; to promote informed discussion of key issues; to provide state-of-the-art training for practitioners. The Programme will engage expertise from across the range of relevant academic disciplines and promote dialogue across the range of stakeholders, practitioners and decision-makers.

The Loyola de Palacio Chair is funded by the contributions from sponsoring companies and is directed by Jean-Michel Glachant.

Climate Policy Research Unit

The Climate Policy Research Unit (CPRU) was established in 2010 at the initiative of Josep Borrell, President of the EUI . Director of the CPRU is Denny Ellerman, part-time professor at the RSCAS, and recently retired as a Senior Lecturer from MIT's Sloan School of Management. The CPRU works in collaboration with the energy and regulatory policy research groups of the Florence School of Regulation and Loyola de Palacio Chair and with the Global Governance Programme at the EUI. Starting in 2012, the CPRU has been funded primarily by the European Commission (DG Climate Action). The CPRU's goal is to provide a reliable source for information and analysis of EU climate policy and a forum for discussion of research carried out in this area among government officials, academics and industry.

THINK project

THINK will improve the knowledge support to policy making by the European Commission in the context of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan. The project is organized around a multidisciplinary group of 24 experts from 14 countries covering five dimensions of energy policy: science and technology, market and network economics, regulation, law, and policy implementation.

The THINK Tank will respond to the European Commission’s evolving needs on a semester basis producing 12 dossiers and a book. Each semester, the permanent drafting team based on Florence works on two project reports which go through the quality process of the THINK Tank. This includes an Expert Hearing with the Industrial Council to test the robustness of the work, a discussion meeting with the Scientific Council of the THINK Tank, and a Public Consultation to test the public acceptance of different policy options by involving the broader community.