IBERDROLA Manuel Marin Chair for European Energy and Climate Policy

Mission

The College of Europe responded to the ever-growing relevance of energy and climate policy for the European and global agendas through the creation of the IBERDROLA Manuel Marín Chair for European Energy and Climate Policy. The activities of the Chair make the College a hub for teaching, discussing and shaping European energy and climate policy currently known as the Green Deal.

It has never been as important for the future shapers of European integration to understand energy as in these times of the Green Deal. The transformation process labelled as Green Deal is even more important for Europe than striking the path to achieving climate-neutrality by 2050 – as if that were not important enough. It is a process of the same magnitude as the Industrial Revolution of some 250 years ago. In this transformation, the Green Deal provides an opportunity for the Union to be an early adopter and take the lead at home and aboard, but the challenges and risks are massive too. The way how it is managed in and by the Europe Union will decide about our future lifestyles and wealth distribution in our societies, of our economic and geopolitical role in the world, and not least about the cohesion in Europe.

As in the previous Industrial Revolution, a change in the way how we produce and use energy lies at the heart of the transformation. The essence of decarbonization is replacing the fossil fuels produced, distributed and consumed in our economy and personal lives by renewable energy. This massive switch is already well underway in the energy sectors, and is gaining traction in connected sectors such as transport, industry and information technology. To achieve decarbonization in a period of only thirty years, visionary entrepreneurship needs to coalesce with the right mix of regulatory measures, reconfiguring existing policy areas and redirecting financial flows on an unprecedented level in Europe.

While addressing sensitive questions of social justice and security, and preparing for setbacks and crises is a necessary part of that process, the Chair for European Energy and Climate Policy at the College aims at promoting a positive vision of the great transformation ahead of us. Maybe more than ever before, the present generation is called upon to rethink the very foundations of our societies, economies and not least European integration. In doing so, they will need to make good for neglect in the past but can also built on a wealth of experience and, yes, important progress. A positive vision will help this generation to engage and unlock its creativity. Beyond the vision, the Chair aims to equip students at the College with a solid understanding of the energy and climate policies in Europe, an understating which is indispensable for those who intend to participate in the discourse about decarbonization and the Green Deal, let alone those counting to help designing or working with these policies in the future. In this respect, the Chair’s intention is to provide students with a functioning compass in the thicket of complexity which energy and climate policy is.

Education

BUSCHLE D. - European Energy Policy, Climate Governance and the Green Deal (30h)

The course takes students to the heart of the Green Deal through the gateway of the energy sectors. The production, conversion, distribution and use of natural resources and energy were key for the carbonization of economies and societies at the times of the Industrial Revolution, and will be key again in the process of decarbonization. Despite its foundation on coal in the 1950s, the European Union and its predecessors have been intensively dealing with the energy sectors only for the last thirty years. In this period, what we call classical European Energy Policy has been developed, which rested on three main objectives – the internal market, internal and external energy, and sustainability. Students will gain an insight to basics of energy governance, policy and regulation in Europe during this period, including the geopolitical challenges and the advent of a new global energy and climate order based on the Paris Agreement. They will also understand how the energy markets and networks are evolving, and converge with sectors as different as transport, information technology or finance. The Green Deal opens a new chapter not only for energy policy but for all areas of our economies and societies, and European integration altogether. Compared to classical energy policy, the Green Deal is not only wider in scope but also relies much more on regulatory measures such as targets and plans, carbon pricing, subsidies and green finance, which will be discussed in the course together with other elements of the Green Deal governance. A particular focus will be on the various consequences of the Green Deal in areas such as social justice, geopolitics and diplomacy or the relation between the European Union and its Member States.

The course follows a multi-disciplinary approach in covering a broad range of aspects and features, including historical, technical, economic, political and legal. As part of the course, students will be assigned to coaches from the institutions, business and civil society to work on a graded assignment in the framework of the Chair’s Energy and Climate Governance Lab.

The course is taught by Professor Dr. Dirk BUSCHLE, Chairholder of the European Energy and Climate Policy Chair.

Past Events

Conferences

7 September 2018  "Quo Vadis Energy Union", Berlin, with SWP. More information. 

7 February 2019 ‘Decarbonising energy: Lessons from history and policies for the future’

18 November 2019 "Pricing Carbon: The Silver Bullet for the Energy Transition?" 

Tuesday 15 June 2021 “The Great Transition: How to get to carbon zero 2050?”

Lectures

6 March 2018: Mr Guy LENTZ. “An Intro to European Energy Policy”

26 February 2019: Mr. Philippe LAMBERTS “Questions and Answers: the ‘Ecological Transition’”.

4 March 2019 Ms. Anne BERGENFELT “COP 24 in Katowice: A success for EU climate diplomacy?”.

1 April 2019, Bernd BIERVERT “Europe’s External Energy Policy – Solo or Solidarity?”.

16 November 2020 Michael MEHLING, Deputy Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), gave a lecture on CBAM, entitled “Carbon Border Adjustment: Salvation or downfall of EU climate action?”

24 November 2020 Aleksandra TOMCZAK, Member of Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Timmermans “The Just Transition Fund: where do we go from here?"

13 January 2021 Ditte Juul-Jorgensen, Director-General of DG ENER “Career Webinar”

Our Sponsor

The College of Europe Chair on European energy policy is generously supported by IBERDROLA.

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Our People