Climate change is the most serious issue ever to have faced humanity. Rightly, it is now high on the public, political, media and business agendas. However, too much of the discussion is still about what we should not be doing or what we should be against. There is not enough discussion or information on solutions – what we can and should do to minimise dangerous climate change, and what should be done to make us not only safer and more secure, but also richer and happier.
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CER has recently published my paper on priorities for EU development aid.
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CER has now published my short policy brief ‘How to expand renewable energy after 2020′.
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Dieter Helm, professor of energy policy at Oxford University, is a leading voice in European energy policy. During 2011, he acted as a special adviser to energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger. Helm has now written a new book: The carbon crunch: how we’re getting climate change wrong – and how to fix it.
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The Centre for European Reform has published my policy brief Connecting Europe’s energy systems. In this, I argue that Europe’s energy infrastructure urgently needs to be modernised, to maximise renewable energy use, so the Commission’s proposals on infrastructure should be adopted as soon as possible (see Centre for European Reform: Connecting Europe’s energy systems).
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The European Emissions Trading System must be overhauled. The cap should be lowered, and combined with a price floor and ceiling and border tax adjustments.
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David Buchan has written a valuable paper on European electricity policy, in which he argues convincingly that harmonising the various national schemes would be more efficienct and so cut costs. The level of subsidy could continue to differ, but the design of the schemes should be made more consistent.
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Germany is planning several new coal and gas power stations – without CCS – to replace its nuclear stations. This is bad for the climate and also a waste of money.
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Denmark, the current president of the European Council of Ministers, should stand firmly behind the Commission’s proposals on energy efficiency and not give in to the demands of other member states.
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The Centre for European Reform has now published a short paper by John Peet, who is Europe editor of the Economist, and me on the EU Budget.
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The UK is running another competition on CCS. But practical progress so far has been precisely zero. And Eon and RWE have pulled out of their UK nuclear joint venture. So there’s a real risk that the UK will experience another ‘dash for gas’ without CCS.
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