Blog Post
What’s at stake: Two years ago, a debate started on whether it would be feasible for the US to achieve 100% renewable energy power. The arguments on both sides have been fierce, and more has been written recently. We review the debate.
Opinion
The proposed Nord Stream 2 pipeline could destabilise European energy cooperation and offer Gazprom excessive influence in Central and Eastern Europe. These disadvantages do not justify the commercial benefits for German companies.
Past Event
The objective of this brainstorm session is to explore how we can improve the quality and the impact of the revisited 2050 Roadmap, set the agenda for revising it, increase ownership of it and analyze the methodological basis of the 2050 Roadmap.
Blog Post
Patchy access to electricity remains a major challenge for sub-Saharan Africa's economic development. The EU and its member states have many programmes to support electrification in Africa, but fragmentation reduces their impact. A single platform for European support would provide the necessary coordination and leverage.
Past Event
Closed-door brainstorming workshop about how the European energy system is changing because of decarbonisation and digitalisation.
Opinion
Gazprom is pushing ahead with plans to build a second gas pipeline under the Baltic sea, straight form Russia to Germany. Supporters claim that Ukraine cannot be relied on as a transit partner, and that Europe will need more gas in the future. Georg Zachmann is unconvinced, and argues that the project should wait.
Policy Contribution
Electrification is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most pressing socio-economic challenges. Europe has created a myriad of fragmented initiatives to promote electrification in sub-Saharan Africa, limiting their efficacy. This sub-optimal situation should be changed by coordinating the initiatives of European institutions and EU countries through a unique platform: the EU Electrify Africa Hotspot.
Upcoming Event
The Annual Meetings are Bruegel’s flagship event. They offer a mixture of large public debates and small private sessions about key issues in European and global economics. In a series of high-level discussions, Bruegel’s scholars, members and stakeholders will address the economic policy challenges facing Europe.
Blog Post
US President Trump has made it clear that he is not happy with the Paris Agreement. This week he will announce whether the US will withdraw from the Agreement altogether. What might that mean for the global fight against climate change? US decarbonisation is already well underway but the EU would need to step up and defend global climate governance.
Blog Post
New inventions build on earlier inventions, so patent citations are one indication of who is standing on whose shoulders. We show that four low-carbon technologies (wind, solar, electric vehicles and batteries) exhibit markedly different patterns of citation behaviour. If technology spillovers are structurally different between sectors, this could imply that policies to support innovation clusters would need different approaches. Differentiated policies could range from promoting individual champions for technologies with strong internal spillovers, to supporting regional eco-systems for technologies with more fuzzy spillovers.
Opinion
Is the EastMed pipeline really a feasible project? The answer to this question is not simple, but the EastMed plan sounds unconvincing.
Blog Post
Many countries in the MENA region are heavily dependent on oil and gas for exports and taxes. But global decarbonisation could undermine revenues, even though MENA exports are globally competitive. This threatens the MENA region's social contract, so economic diversification needs to start now.
