Developing the EU long term climate strategy

To ensure that EU climate policy is in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, and takes into account substantial recent shifts in the technical a

Publishing date: 18 April 2018
Authors: Georg Zachmann Andrei Marcu

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Designing a new long-term climate strategy (LTCS) implies decisions about how to deal with important climate policy questions. These decisions will shape the strategy and therefore the European climate policy debate.

Given the different tasks an LTCS will need to perform, several coordinated strategy documents with clearly defined purposes will be needed: a sequence (or suite) of strategic documents that outline the EU’s decarbonisation strategy for different audiences.

Given the wide-ranging implications of the drive for net-zero emissions and the limited power of the European Commission to push through top-down legislation, soft instruments such as the LTCS are crucial. A transparent and participatory process in developing the LTCS is therefore vital to generate the buy-in from stakeholders that is necessary to underpin the climate policies that will meet the ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement.

This policy paper draws on the comprehensive discussion in a technical paper available here.

About the authors

Georg Zachmann

Georg Zachmann is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, where he has worked since 2009 on energy and climate policy. His work focuses on regional and distributional impacts of decarbonisation, the analysis and design of carbon, gas and electricity markets, and EU energy and climate policies. Previously, he worked at the German Ministry of Finance, the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, the energy think tank LARSEN in Paris, and the policy consultancy Berlin Economics.
Andrei Marcu

Andrei Marcu has vast experience in managing policy-focused organisations, creating partnerships, managing stakeholder relations and fundraising. His focus has been on sustainable development, climate change and energy. In different capacities, he has been engaged in multilateral negotiating processes and subsequent implementation action, both at the global and sectorial level. He has acted as negotiator for developing countries, coordinator for the G-77 and China, and as representative of the international business community. He pioneered cooperation between the UN system and multinational corporations when serving as Manager of Private Sector Cooperation in the United Nations Development Programme.

During his career, Mr. Marcu has performed at the highest managerial level, both in business organisations and in non-profit organisations. This includes: Sr. Vice President and Head of Regulatory and Policy Affairs at Mercuria Energy Group; CEO of Bluenext, a Paris based exchange; Managing Director for Climate & Energy at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in charge of Energy and Climate and as Vice Chair of the Energy and Environment Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris; Senior Associate to the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), Senior Advisor on Climate Change and Emissions Trading at Bennett Jones LLP in Canada; Founder, President and CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), a business association with offices in Geneva, Brussels, Washington and Toronto. Mr Marcu founded the organisation and made it into one of the leading global business NGOs and the voice of business in its field. Mr. Marcu initiated his career in Ontario Hydro, where among other responsibilities, he served as Chief of Staff for the Chairman & CEO.