The European Investment Bank and the European University Institute (EUI) announce the launch of a new chair, the EIB Chair on Climate Change Policy and International Carbon Markets (“EIB Climate Chair”).
The EIB Climate Chair is entirely supported by the European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU’s climate bank and the world’s largest multilateral provider of finance for projects supporting climate action. It will connect the EUI’s research and training with the EIB’s expertise in both financial and non-financial aspects of climate interventions, for example through the organisation of joint scientific events.
The EIB Climate Chair holder will work alongside researchers at different stages of their careers, carrying out research on carbon markets and sustainable finance; sustainable energy and industrial transition, as well as on the assessment of policies and regulation.
Set within the EUI School of Transnational Governance and building on the expertise already available at the Institute, the Chair will consolidate the EUI’s position as a world-class centre of research and teaching on climate change policy.
In the next five years, the EIB Climate Chair will engage with policy-makers in Europe and around the world on questions related to carbon pricing and sustainable finance covering policies in the fields of energy, industry, transport, trade, agriculture and forestry.
Issues pertaining to sustainability, and particularly climate governance, constitute one of the core clusters of activity at the EUI’s School of Transnational Governance, and one of the specialisations of the two-year Master programme in Transnational Governance that will be launched in the fall of 2020.
Emma Navarro, EIB Group Vice-President responsible for climate action and environment, said “As the EU’s climate bank, the EIB is committed to EU’s plan to achieve a climate neutral European economy by 2050 and make its contribution across the different dimensions of climate action. By supporting this chair we aim to foster research, awareness and debate on topics that are key to shape a sustainable future for all. We are glad to join forces with EUI to launch this important chair on climate change.”
EUI President Renaud Dehousse said: “To counter the impact of climate change the EU and its international partners need to develop low-carbon economies on the basis of scientific evidence and sound policy-making. The EIB Climate Chair will promote the transmission of best climate policy practices across the world through research, teaching, and dissemination of efforts.”
The EUI and the EIB have already partnered on many occasions, in particular in 2017 when EIB Group President Werner Hoyer spoke at the prestigious Conference on the State of the Union, organised yearly by the EUI. In September 2019, Vice-President Navarro and President Dehousse signed in Luxembourg a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in the fields of academic research, teaching and training.
Background information
The EIB is the world’s largest multilateral lender for climate investments. Its goal is to be a leader in mobilising the finance needed to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels in order to meet the Paris Agreement objectives. On 14 November 2019, the EIB’s Board of Directors approved its new climate objectives and the new energy lending policy. The Bank will gradually increase its financing for climate and environmental objectives by up to 50% by 2025, with the goal of ensuring that the EIB Group mobilises at least €1 trillion in the critical decade between 2021 and 2030 to promote investments helping to meet these objectives. It also announced its intention to align all EIB Group activities with the Paris Agreement. To this end, the EIB will cease financing fossil fuel-based projects from late 2021.
Within the EIB Group, the Institute promotes and supports social, cultural, and academic initiatives with European stakeholders and the public at large. It manages the cooperation agreements (partnerships, MoUs.) of the EIB Group with universities and is a key pillar of the EIB Group’s community and citizenship engagement.
The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate teaching and research institute based in Florence, Italy. It was founded in 1972 by the six founding Member States of the European Communities and yesterday is supported by 23 contracting states from the European Union. The EUI offers Ph.D. and Post-Doctoral programmes in Economics; Political and Social Sciences; History; and Law, and is home to the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and the School of Transnational Governance.
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