Category: Outreach

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The ecological response to coronavirus

The coronavirus has stopped our lives and our economies, leading to a historic collapse of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the satellite images showing the dramatic drops in pollution remind us that emissions will come back once the lockdowns are lifted and we go back to the new normal.

What can we learn from the coronavirus that can help us fight climate change? The Spanish TV’s research team at Informe Semanal has asked this question to a group of experts from various fields, from ecology to economics. Here are their answers.

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Virtual Industrial Organization Seminar (VIOS)

The CEPR, together with a group of Industrial Organization Economists in Europe, are launching a new initiative: the CEPR Virtual Industrial Organization Seminar (VIOS).  VIOS provides a short-run alternative to IO seminars cancelled due to travel restrictions brought on by the Coronavirus. The long-run goal, however, is to turn it into a permanent platform for sharing the benefits of regular IO seminars.  Seminars will be balanced between both theoretical and empirical approaches to IO.

The first seminar will be on Wednesday 8th April 2020, at 4:00 p.m. CET. The speaker will be Chiara Farronato (HBS).  Details including seminar rules, upcoming speakers, paper downloads, etc. are available on the VIOS website:  https://sites.google.com/view/virtual-io-seminar/.

In some ways, VIOS is European:  in its scheduling, in its affiliation with the CEPR, and in the composition of its scientific committee. For participation, however, it is international:  any interested IO scholar is welcome to join.

On behalf of Özlem Bedre-Folie, Daniel Ershov, Natalia Fabra, Rachel Griffith, Alessandro Iaria, Gerard Llobet, and Nicolas Schutz (VIOS Organizing/Scientific committee)

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With #Energy, despite COVID19

We are living difficult times. All of a sudden, COVID has stopped our lives. At EnergyEcoLab we are all safe working from home, but we are all still full of #Energy.

Last Friday, Fundación Renovables decided to organise an energy event from home. Four energy experts were interviewed: Joan Groizard (Director of IDAE), José Bogas (CEO of Endesa), Natalia Fabra (Head of EnergyEco Lab) and Fernando Ferrando (President of Fundacion Renovables). They answered the questions that the energy community had been sending by twitter over the week. Questions ranged from the effects of COVID on the electricity sector, to the role that energy companies can play during this crisis, to the new norms that the government plans to send to Parliament right after the end of the lock-in.

Natalia Fabra argued that COVID is having a strong impact on electricity demand in Spain, which has fallen more than 10% since the start of the lock-in. The 20% reduction in electricity demand seen in Italy could be around the corner. As a key indicator of economic activity, this reflects that the Spanish economy has started to slow down. Depending on the scope and breath of the policies implemented by the national and supra-national governments, this shock could have long lasting effects in terms of unemployment and firm exit.

The reduction in electricity demand will depress electricity prices, as the weight of renewables in the energy mix goes up. This will bring good news to households and large energy consumers, but will put cost recovery by the renewable investments at risk. With and without COVID, it is urgent to rethink how to pay for renewable output in ways that allow them to break even despite the predicted reduction in spot market prices. The new auction design that the authorities plan to implement soon – i.e., bidders will compete to have the right to provide renewable energy at a fixed price, to be determined competitively –  should prove to be an efficient solution. Regarding the current discussion as to whether energy companies should be nationalised, Natalia Fabra believes that the focus should be put in designing a good regulation rather than on the public versus private ownership debate.

The video of the event (in Spanish) can be seen here.

The transcript can be dowloaded here.

Stay safe! #EnCasaPorTodos

Natalia Fabra also participated in another web seminar, organized by UNEF. The speakers discussed about the electricity market reforms. The video can be seen here.

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Celebrating Women´s Day

To celebrate the 2020 International Women‘s Day, the European Research Council has gathered articles and posts on excellent research from women, science communication initiated by women and ERC funded research on gender related issues at http://bit.ly/2wDEMSr

We are happy to share this video with you featuring ERC researchers, including Natalia Fabra @energyecolab

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Energy: an Industry in Transition

The workshop “Energy: an Industry in Transition” gathered experts and practitioners across the energy sectors. The emphasis was put on the technological and regulatory innovations to address the Energy Transition.
The head of EnergyEcoLab, Natalia Fabra, participated in a roundtable entitled “Resources, Investments and Incentives for the Change”, chaired by Juan Luis López Cardenete.  A transcript for her words can be read here.
The full program can be downloaded here.
 
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Exhibition on Women in Science

Palabras de Natalia Fabra, Catedrática de Economía UC3M, en la inauguración de la exposición de “Mujeres que cambiaron el mundo” en la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Link.

Ver noticia de la inaguración de la exposición aquí.

Ver vídeo de la exposición, elaborado por Marina Carrasco, estudiante de Periodismo y Comunicación Audiovisual de la UC3M aquí.

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Debate on Ecological Economics organized by UC3M’s student association

The UC3M’s student association DEMOS organized a debate about Ecological Economics, open to the university community. Natalia Fabra, head of EnergyEcoLab, and Juan López de Uralde, ex-director of Greenpeace Spain and current Member of the Spanish Parliament, debated about the policies that need to be put in place in order to combat climate change. They stressed the need and urgency of climate action, which will entail economic, social and environmental benefits exceeding the costs of no action. Climate and energy policies need to take into account the distributional impacts, and compensate the negative impacts where needed. It is paramount that policy making is independent of lobby groups, which might delay policy implementation or distort it away of the common interest. They both acknowledged the effort of DEMOS and other associations, as they are key in mobilizing society and politics towards more ambitious climate action.

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Imelda presented at the World Resource Institute Indonesia

Imelda presented her on-going research on energy efficiency and households consumption response at seminar series hosted by World Resource Institute Indonesia. With the theme: “Towards Cleaner and More Affordable Household Energy Sources”, the seminar allowed active participation from practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. In her talk, she discussed the rebound effects due to improvements in energy efficiency. She exploits a policy experiment in Indonesia to evaluate these rebound effects when households switch to use more efficient fuel for cooking. Her presentation can be downloaded here.

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