Book

Greening Europe’s post-COVID-19 recovery

This Blueprint includes some of the Group’s most prominent voices on the different aspects of the multidimensional issue of green recovery.

Publishing date
23 February 2022

Even in the early days of COVID-19, the European Union signalled its commitment to make its post-pandemic recovery green. The disruption caused by the pandemic would require significant rebuilding of the economy, offering an opportunity to accelerate green investment in the context of the European Green Deal. But pursuing a green recovery is not as straightforward as it might seem. Complex trade-offs must be negotiated between the need for short-term stimulus and the need to address the long-term challenge posed by global warming.

To support policymakers in this difficult endeavour, Bruegel launched in 2020 the Bruegel Green Recovery Group, an initiative supported by the European Climate Foundation. Its aim was to be a platform for dialogue between high-level EU policymakers and academics on green recovery, in Europe and beyond. This Blueprint compiles some of the work of prominent voices of the Group, on issues that will touch the lives of all Europeans.

About the authors

  • Jean Pisani-Ferry

    Jean Pisani-Ferry is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, the European think tank, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute (Washington DC). He is also a professor of economics with Sciences Po (Paris).

    He sits on the supervisory board of the French Caisse des Dépôts and serves as non-executive chair of I4CE, the French institute for climate economics.

    Pisani-Ferry served from 2013 to 2016 as Commissioner-General of France Stratégie, the ideas lab of the French government. In 2017, he contributed to Emmanuel Macron’s presidential bid as the Director of programme and ideas of his campaign. He was from 2005 to 2013 the Founding Director of Bruegel, the Brussels-based economic think tank that he had contributed to create. Beforehand, he was Executive President of the French PM’s Council of Economic Analysis (2001-2002), Senior Economic Adviser to the French Minister of Finance (1997-2000), and Director of CEPII, the French institute for international economics (1992-1997).

    Pisani-Ferry has taught at University Paris-Dauphine, École Polytechnique, École Centrale and the Free University of Brussels. His publications include numerous books and articles on economic policy and European policy issues. He has also been an active contributor to public debates with regular columns in Le Monde and for Project Syndicate.

  • 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.

  • Guntram B. Wolff

    Guntram Wolff is a Senior fellow at Bruegel. He is also a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. From 2022-2024, he was the Director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and from 2013-22 the director of Bruegel. Over his career, he has contributed to research on European political economy, climate policy, geoeconomics, macroeconomics and foreign affairs. His work was published in academic journals such as Nature, Science, Research Policy, Energy Policy, Climate Policy, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Banking and Finance. His co-authored book “The macroeconomics of decarbonization” is published in Cambridge University Press.

    An experienced public adviser, he has been testifying twice a year since 2013 to the informal European finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ ECOFIN Council meeting on a large variety of topics. He also regularly testifies to the European Parliament, the Bundestag and speaks to corporate boards. In 2020, Business Insider ranked him one of the 28 most influential “power players” in Europe. From 2012-16, he was a member of the French prime minister’s Conseil d’Analyse Economique. In 2018, then IMF managing director Christine Lagarde appointed him to the external advisory group on surveillance to review the Fund’s priorities. In 2021, he was appointed member and co-director to the G20 High level independent panel on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response under the co-chairs Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Lawrence H. Summers and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. From 2013-22, he was an advisor to the Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth. He is a member of the Bulgarian Council of Economic Analysis, the European Council on Foreign Affairs and  advisory board of Elcano.

    Guntram joined Bruegel from the European Commission, where he worked on the macroeconomics of the euro area and the reform of euro area governance. Prior to joining the Commission, he worked in the research department at the Bundesbank, which he joined after completing his PhD in economics at the University of Bonn. He also worked as an external adviser to the International Monetary Fund. He is fluent in German, English, and French. His work is regularly published and cited in leading media. 

  • Laurence Boone

    Laurence Boone is the OECD Chief Economist and Head of the Economics Department since July 2018. Ms. Boone ensures that the Department is at the forefront of Economic thinking and will coordinate the work of the Country Studies and Policy branches to create new opportunities and enhance synergies and co operation with the whole of the OECD, including through contributions to horizontal projects.

    Ms. Boone also supervises the contributions of the Economics Department to the New Approaches to Economic Challenges (NAEC) and Inclusive Growth (IG) initiatives. She is the Secretary General’s spokesperson on economic issues and serves as the OECD Representative at the Deputies’ meetings of the G20 Finance Track.

    Before joining the OECD, Ms. Boone was the Chief Economist at AXA Group and Global Head of Multi-Asset Client Solutions & Trading and Securities Finance, AXA Investment Managers, France. She was an independent director of Kering's board and remains a member of the Strategic committee of Agence France Trésor, the French National Debt Office.

    Prior to this, she was Sherpa and Special Advisor for Multilateral and European Economic & Financial Affairs to the President of the French Republic (2014-2016); Chief Economist and Managing Director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (2011-2014); Managing Director and Chief Economist France, Barclays Capital (2004-2011); Economist, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (1998-2004); Economist, CEPII, France (1996-1998) and Quantitative Analyst for Merrill Lynch Asset Management, UK (1995-1996).

    She is a member of the Cercle des Economistes as well as of SDA Bocconi.

    Author of numerous articles, she taught at the École Polytechnique, ENSAE (the National School of Statistics) and the École Normale Supérieure and Sciences Po (Paris School of International Affairs).

    Ms. Boone, a French national, has a PhD in Applied Econometrics from the London Business School (UK); a MSc in Econometrics & Macroeconomic Modelling from Reading University (UK); a Master's Degree in Economics from Université Paris X Nanterre (FRA) and a postgraduate diploma (DEA) in Modelling and Quantitative Analysis from University Paris X Nanterre (FRA).

  • Simone Tagliapietra

    Simone Tagliapietra is a Senior fellow at Bruegel. He is also a Professor of Energy, Climate and Environmental Policy at the Catholic University of Milan and at The Johns Hopkins University - School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Europe.

    His research focuses on the European Union climate and energy policy and on the political economy of global decarbonisation. With a record of numerous policy and scientific publications, also in leading journals such as Nature and Science, he is the author of Global Energy Fundamentals (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

    His columns and policy work are published and cited in leading international media such as the BBC, CNN, Financial Times, The New York Times, The Economist, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, Die Zeit, Corriere della Sera, and others.

    Simone also is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Clean Air Task Force (CATF). He holds a PhD in Institutions and Policies from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Born in the Dolomites in 1988, he speaks Italian, English and French.

  • Ottmar Edenhofer

    Ottmar Edenhofer is Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Professor for the Economics of Climate Change at the Technical University Berlin as well as founding director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC). Furthermore, he is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and of the National Academy of Science and Engineering acatech. From 2008 to 2015 he served as Co-Chair of Working Group III of the IPCC, shaping the Fifth Assessment Report on Climate Change Mitigation substantially.

     

  • Thomas Wieser

    Thomas Wieser was a non-resident fellow at Bruegel. He was President of the Euro Working Group and of the European Financial Committee of the European Union until February 2018. The role had been a full-time position since October 2011, following a decision to make it so by EU Heads of state. He previously chaired the Committee between March 2009 and March 2011.

    Before becoming President of the EWG/EFC, he was Director General for Economic Policy and Financial Markets in the Ministry of Finance, Vienna. There he was in charge of macro-economic policy, international and EU affairs, financial market legislation, and export credits and guarantees.

    He also has a strong academic background in Economics. After a degree in Economics (University of Innsbruck), he pursued post-graduate studies in theoretical and mathematical economics, and taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder (Fulbright scholarship) as well as the Institute of Advanced Studies, Vienna.

  • Ian Parry

    Ian Parry is the Principal Environmental Fiscal Policy Expert in the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF. Prior to joining the IMF in 2010, Parry held the Allen V. Kneese Chair in Environmental Economics at Resources for the Future. He has a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.

    Parry’s research focuses on analytical and spreadsheet models to quantify for different countries the economic impacts and efficient levels of a wide range of environmental, energy, and transportation policies. His work emphasizes the critical role of fiscal instruments to address externalities and raise revenue. His recent (co-authored or co-edited) books include Energy Tax and Regulatory Policy in Europe: Reform Priorities; Implementing a US Carbon Tax: Challenges and Debates; Getting Energy Prices Right: From Principle to Practice; Fiscal Policy to Mitigate Climate Change: A Guide for Policymakers; and Issues of the Day: 100 Commentaries on Environmental, Energy, Transportation, and Public Health Policy.

  • Antoine Dechezleprêtre

    Antoine Dechezleprêtre is a Senior Economist at the OECD where he heads the joint Green Growth work stream of the Economics Department and the Environment Directorate. He is currently on leave from the London School of Economics, where he is an Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. His work deals principally with the impact of environmental policies on businesses, in particular on the development and adoption of cleaner technologies. His research has been published in international scientific journals in the field of applied microeconomics, environmental economics and energy economics. He holds a PhD in economics from Ecole des Mines de Paris (France).

    For more information about the author, click here.

  • Klaas Lenaerts

    Klaas worked at Bruegel as a Research Analyst until August 2022. He holds a Master in Economics from the KU Leuven and in European Economic Studies from the College of Europe. Additionally, he spent one semester at Uppsala University.

    Klaas has a broad background in economics and European affairs. Before joining Bruegel he did a traineeship at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU, where he worked on enlargement discussions, and at the European Securities and Markets Authority in Paris, where he contributed mainly to the work of the Risk Analysis and Economics department on such topics as crypto regulation and sustainable finance.

    His fields of interest include European climate policy and Eurozone governance, as well as external relations and trade. He is fluent in Dutch and English and advanced in French and German.

  • Robert Stavins

    Robert N. Stavins is an A. J. Meyer Professor of Energy and Economic Development at John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

  • Mirjam Kosch

    Mirjam Kosch is an enthusiastic environmental scientist and completed her doctorate in economics at ETH Zurich on climate policy in the electricity sector. As part of her doctoral thesis, she empirically analyzed the impact of renewable energy subsidies and carbon pricing. Currently, she is working on the expansion of the European emissions trading system and investigating the interplay of different policy instruments as well as the impact of climate policy on electricity prices. In addition, Mirjam Kosch is actively engaged in the dialogue between science and politics.

  • Michael Pahle

  • Laurence Tubiana

    Laurence Tubiana is CEO of the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and a Professor at Sciences Po, Paris. She previously chaired the Board of Governors at the French Development Agency (AFD), as well as the Board at Expertise France (The French public agency for international technical assistance). Before joining the ECF, Laurence was France’s Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative for COP21, and as such a key architect of the landmark Paris Agreement. Following COP21 and through COP22, she was appointed UN High-Level Champion for climate action.

    Laurence brings decades of expertise. From 1997—2002, she served as Senior Adviser on the Environment to the French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. From 2009—2010, she created and led the newly established Directorate for Global Public Goods at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She founded in 2002 and directed until 2014 the Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). She has held academic positions including Sciences Po and as Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University. She has been a member of numerous boards and scientific committees, including the Chinese Committee on the Environment and International Development (CCICED).

  • Sabine Mauderer

  • Tomasz Koźluk

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