This project (612408-EPP-1-2019-1-EPPKA2-KA) has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
This project (612408-EPP-1-2019-1-EPPKA2-KA) has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine led Europe to move away from the current energy mix as quickly as possible. One of the priorities of the EU Repower EU project is the Diversification of gas supplies and working with international partners to move away from Russian gas, investing in the necessary infrastructure concerning gas sources that have already been discovered and are geographically close to the European market
The EastMed pipeline is a €6 billion project for the shipment of gas from offshore deposits in Israel and Egypt through a 1,250-kilometer pipeline running via Cyprus and Greece to European markets. It will reach depths of 3km, and have a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per year.
The project, which will take 4 years to complete, concerns the construction of offshore and onshore pipelines for the transport of natural gas from the offshore fields of Leviathan & Aphrodite in the Eastern Mediterranean to Greece, as well as to Italy and other European regions through the existing pipelines IGI Poseidon and IGB Project (Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria) with the aim of enhancing Europe's energy security.
In January 2022, the United States announced withdrawal of support as the project is not seen as economically viable or environmentally friendly, meaning the project is likely to be cancelled.
Contributing to the implementation of the project and in contrast to the above announcement, is the recent statement of Michael Wirth (CEO Chevron Corporation) at the CERAWeek energy conference (7 - 11 March 2022) in Houston, USA, who stressed that the project EastMed should be seen as a useful route to supply Europe with new gas.
According to recent statements by N. Monti (EDISON CEO) "it is a sustainable and competitive project today and can be implemented within four years once all the conditions are met in terms of funding and policy" and noted that "four years is a reasonably short period of time, given that we will need gas for many more years, certainly for an economic cycle that will then lead us to the horizon of decarbonization by 2050".
One crucial fact should also be taken into account that in the gas transportation sector, pipelines can be retrofitted to transport blends of hydrogen and methane in the short to medium term. In the long term, these pipelines can also be fully repurposed to transport pure hydrogen once supply and demand increase.
Although energy prices have been increasing since last year, in February there was a hint of some decrease that made us expect a kind of back to normality in the electricity markets, or at least a new stability of prices. However, the international political situation has refuted this possibility, the economic consequences of the Russian war in Ukraine have reflected new price increases in the energy market, exceeding in March a 70% of the already abusive prices of February, reaching a new historic maximum in Spain of 545 €/kWh.
This highlights the dependence on gas imported from Russia by Europe, which is necessary to produce electricity in combined cycle power plants, with 40% of consumption in the European Union. The wholesale market follows a marginal model, which means the final hourly price of electricity is pegged to the price of the most expensive fuel required to meet projected demand. In this case gas, which sets the price of the electricity market in most periods of high demand.
This situation has a direct effect on the electricity prices of consumers and industries intensifying the existing energy crisis. But what can be done about it?
Though the various political measures to reduce rates or set price limits may bring some relief, long term it is imperative to promote renewable energy sources to achieve an economy with net-zero greenhouse emissions, independent of gas, not only because of the well-known ecological drawbacks, but also because of economic aspects. In addition, this necessary transition to a low-carbon energy model requires the use of DERs that give autonomy to consumers, reducing transportation losses and related costs.
Under this premise, now more than ever there is a need for expert leaders in energy and sustainability, with technical, financial and economic knowledge, capable of leading the transition to a green energy model emancipated from gas, while managing the decision making and risk management of the process.
We knew already that energy efficiency was a fundamental pillar of any energy transition strategy we could imagine for the next thirty years. What we have urgently understood in the last couple of months, due to the critical scenario of energy provision and prices caused by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, is that energy efficiency is also the fastest and most affordable way to diminish our exposure to energy related risks.
If not clear enough, the new Energy Efficiency Directive proposal issued by the European Commission last July together with the “Fit for 55 Package”, reiterates this concept dedicating a full article to the Energy Efficiency First principle, stating that energy efficiency solutions will have to be taken into consideration in planning, policy and investments decisions and the application of this principle will be verified.
Looking at it from a practical point of view: applying the Energy Efficiency First principle does not push energy efficiency on top of priorities, but it does result in considering energy efficiency opportunities (i.e. control system optimization, equipment replacement, etc.) before – and before is key – looking for solutions on the supply side. In other words: first thing to do is minimize the energy demand, only after that, figure out how to cover that demand with energy sources less impacting on the environment.
The good news is that energy efficiency never comes alone: together with energy savings a lot of other not-energy benefits (NEBs) can be identified and monetized to develop a more complete financial analysis and to reach a broader understanding of the energy efficiency measure itself. These NEBs are related to strategic areas for businesses like risk mitigation, value proposition increase and costs reduction. These impacts are real, tangible and their quantification are often needed to make energy efficiency more appealing to decision makers.
So, time is short, the direction is drawn, let’s just do it!
The European Commission has proposed on 8 March 2022 an outline of a plan to make Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels well before 2030, starting with gas, in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
This plan outlines a series of measures to respond to rising energy prices in Europe and to replenish gas stocks for next winter. Moreover, the goal of terminating our dangerous overdependence on fossil fuels from Russia can be achieved well before 2030.
The plan focuses on four emergency measures on energy prices. In particular, EU State Aid rules offers consultation with Member States on a potential Temporary Framework to grant aid to companies facing high energy costs. It remains important to keep retail energy prices in check by confirming the possibility of price regulation to help protect consumers and our economy. Finally, the plan suggests market actions assessing options to improve the electricity market design and guidance on temporary tax measures on windfall profits and use of emissions trading revenues, so governments can ease the pressure on household consumers.
Regarding the refilling gas storage for next winter, the Commission intends to present by April a legislative proposal requiring underground gas storage across the EU to be filled up to at least 90% of its capacity by 1 October each year, designating gas storage as critical infrastructure, and allowing incentives for refilling. The Commission continues its investigation into the gas market in response to concerns about potential distortions of competition by operators, notably Gazprom.
In order to phase out our dependence on fossil fuels from Russia, the Commission proposes to develop a REPowerEU plan that will increase the resilience of the EU-wide energy system based on two pillars:
With the measures in the REPowerEU plan, we could gradually remove at least 155 bcm of fossil gas use, which is equivalent to the volume imported from Russia in 2021. Nearly two thirds of that reduction can be achieved within a year, ending the EU's overdependence on a single supplier.
During the kick-off event on 26 January, the Autonomous Provinces of Bolzano/Bozen and Trento officially took over the Presidency of the European Union Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) on behalf of Italy for the year 2022. After France, successfully presiding over EUSALP for two years, the Italian Presidency will now continue the transformation of the Alpine Region into an attractive, competitive and green region.
The EUSALP area shall become the first carbon neutral macro-region with the highest rate of municipalities that cover their energy needs exclusively from local renewable energy sources and with the highest rate of energy-efficient building renovations in Europe.
There are seven areas of action:
1. Effectively tackling the challenge of climate change by promoting energy efficiency and the energy transition to path the way of the EUSALP towards carbon-neutrality
2. Fostering smart villages and sustainable local development
3. Empowering the EUSALP youth
4. Promote sustainable tourism and transport
5. Advance the cooperation on natural risk management and spatial planning
6. Strengthening the EUSALP governance and its embedding
7. Support new financial networks
In recent years, Climate risk estimation is becoming an highly investigated topic in quantitative finance: questions like “what’s the risk of huge losses of an insurance institution due climate catastrophes in a given area?” or “how will a firm heavily reliant on fossil fuels react to the transition towards a greener economy required by the Paris agreements?” are with no surprises of major interest for the stability of the financial system. The questions above pose two inherently different issues: what are, respectively, the risks coming from extreme climate events and from the need to adapt to a new, greener economy. The first kind of problem goes under the name of Physical risk, whereas the second one is called Transition risk.
What one has to do when estimating risk is attributing probabilities to the events that identify this risk. In our context, for example, one would like to estimate the probabilities of different kinds of extreme climate events in different areas in the next twenty / thirty years as a function of future carbon emissions: this is necessary when one wants to find the optimal carbon emissions abatement to require to the community so as to limit the increase of the average temperature and consequently the probability of such extreme events.
So far so good: but the problem is, how to estimate these probabilities? One of the most used approaches in classical analysis is looking at historical data. But does it make sense when speaking about climate events, considering we are facing a completely new era? Think about situations with potential catastrophic consequences, such as the collapse of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation, the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet or the loss of the Amazon rainforest. Such catastrophic events (also called tipping points) have not been encountered in recent history, and therefore their likelihood of occurrence is extremely difficult to assess.
We then have two degrees of uncertainty: not only we don’t know if an event will happen or not, but we don’t even feel comfortable enough to assign it a probability. This situation is known as model uncertainty.
Can we just aggregate the probabilities? Imagine we are a decision maker and we have to base on three experts, one saying that the chance of a given tipping point event in the plus two degree of global warming is 50%, a second one 30%, a third one 10%: if we trust them the same, can we take your decision averaging their estimations and behaving like if the event has a probability of 30%? The answer is NO! The reason is that, as social experiments have shown (look for example at the Ellsberg Paradox, 1961) we are inherently averse to situations where we don’t know the probability of the events that influence our future.
What to do then? What is sure is that we definitely have to take into account model uncertainty when dealing with Climate risk. Different approaches have been proposed, but as a general rule of thumb one could say that we have to give more weight the most pessimistic scenarios. Here a (far to be exhaustive) bibliography:
The Ludwig Maximilians Universität München (LMU), one of the partners of the GrEnFIn project, has organised an online GrEnFIn Workshop local validation event. The workshop was addressed to master and bachelor students of LMU and had a threefold goal: presenting the GrEnFIn project, summarizing the activities that have been implemented in the context of the Pilot class of LMU, also listening to students feedbacks, and promoting the GrEnFIn Full Immersion Experience, that will take place in Bertinoro (Italy) from the 20th to the 23rd June.
On the 11th of April, hosted by Prometeia (Project Associate partner) in their spacious headquarter in Bologna, University of Bologna is organizing an Umbrella Organization Meeting within the framework of the GrEnFIn Project. The local workshop is organized in presence and in Italian. During the event, the project’s developments and results achieved will be presented. Participating you’ll have the exclusive opportunity to follow panels on finance and energy held by some of the most eminent speakers of the field. It will be also possible to attend to the testimony of students already following an informal academic path with GrEnFIn profile. All the participants will be asked to validate the project’s contents by filling out a questionnaire. The event will follow by a restricted Round table with specific stakeholders invited to discuss the GrEnFIn findings.
Due to the current pandemic situation, it is mandatory to register your participation in advance.
Use this link to reserve a place: https://forms.gle/Q4SeQRCR6N6toyvU7
The GrEnFIn team is thrilled to announce the opening of the Full Immersion Experience Applications. The Experience will take place in the University Residential Centre of Bertinoro (Ce.U.B.) from the 20 – 23 of June 2022. Students and Professionals will have the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and apply their competences following their dedicated path. All the information on the dedicated page of the GrEnFIn site "Full Immersion Experiences"
MIWenergia, one of the SMEs partners in the GrEnFIn project, will hold an event presenting the Professional Module developed during the project. The experiences from the past Summer Training will be also explained and a questionnaire with feedback from the audience will be collected in order to enhance the future course.
The workshop will be performed in Spanish.
As a part of the GrEnFIn European Project, three of the project consortium partners; Birkbeck - University of London, Paris-Dauphine University, and Vienna University of Economics and Business, are organising a joint workshop about recent results in green finance.
The event will host six of brilliant researchers from five different institutions in the field of green finance to discuss their recent research results in this area.
The event will take place online via Zoom on Thursday, December the 2nd, 2021 at 2pm-6pm CET Paris Time.
Register to the event following the link below:
https://wu-ac-at.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEpf-muqj8vHdQDpZ6NZQciHahwxMhxUrSe
The 23rd of November 2021, from 12.00 till 15.00, the Project Consortium Partners attended a Steering Committee Meeting on MICROSOFT TEAMS. The Meeting was planned to discuss the EACEA Intermediate Evaluation and the coping strategies developed to reply to EACEA's remarks. The main topics discussed were: the project Evaluation process, the Dissemination and the Exploitation of results and the details of the Amendment n.2, currently under discussion in its specificities. It was also the chance to share and discuss with the all the partners the new structure for the upcoming Full Immersion Experience.
If you didn’t subscribe it yet, click here: https://grenfin.eu/newsLetter.php
SPEED Development Consultants organized the GrEnFIn local validation workshop (webinar) in Athens Greece on October 21st. Participants, outside project partners, representing consultancy firms, educational institutions, energy think tank, governmental agency, attended the workshop.
The video of the workshop is available at https://youtu.be/m0bQy1isPSQ.
SPEED Development Consultants SA as partner of the GrEnFIn project, is happy to invite you to the on line “GrEnFIn Local Workshop”. The objective of the Workshop is to discuss a new novel Training Scheme in Greening Energy & Finance for professionals already in the relative market. We will present, discuss and validate through an online questionnaire the possible structure in terms of educational content and means of implementation of the new Training Scheme for professionals, and also the project and its implementation up to now.
Professionals already in the fields of energy, finance, transportation, industry, policymakers, energy consultants, governmental agencies, universities, are welcome to join the on line event on October 21st 2021 at 15:00 - 16:30 Athens time (GMT+2)
The schedule and the speakers:
Click to enroll for the workshop and receive the relative Zoom link.
Why is a green monetary policy required? Green monetary policies are emerging in the aftermath of climate change. Other than altering the equilibrium of the environment, the scientific community suggests that climate change is a threat to financial stability because it affects the functioning of the real economy. Private and public investments in carbon-intensive activities appear to contribute to the damaging effects on the environment of human activity. The transition towards a low-carbon economy passes through a massive intervention of climate policies, rather than through pure market-based solutions.
In recent years, Quantitative Easing (QE) as an unconventional tool of monetary policy gained importance due to the low-inflation rates regime. The Market Operations Committee (MOC) at the European Central Bank launched the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) in 2015 that is dedicated to buy government bonds and bonds issued by institutions owned by the government. The ECB can thus operate green investments by purchasing green bonds (3,5% of its portfolio pre Covid-19 pandemic) in the attempt to mitigate climate change. However, the ability of the ECB to prefer green bonds over brown is limited due to the market neutrality principle - one of the pillars of European monetary policy. The principle implies a limited impact of the purchase programs on the asset prices. This can be achieved by buying bonds proportional to their quantity outstanding and consequently keeping the relative prices among assets constant. Such market neutrality principle can discriminate among sectors based on the quantity of bonds issued by each sector.
Successively, in June 2016, the ECB launched the Corporate Sector Purchase Programme (CSPP), aimed at further buying bonds issued by the private sectors. The total holdings of the ECB portfolio of the corporate bonds due to the CSPP has a market capitalization of 281 billion Euros as per the end of June 2021. This programme raised concerns regarding its distributional impact among different sectors. Corporations have different means of financing their activities as loans, corporate bonds, and equity. For instance, companies in the services sector are greener and they depend mainly for financing their activities on loans and equity, rather than by issuing corporate bonds. This is an example of a bias towards brown sectors, since the asset purchase programmes follow the market neutrality policy.
The importance of unconventional monetary policy tools after the pandemic and a consistency in low-inflation rate regime raises a need of adapting these tools to be green. Market neutrality policy can have a stabilizing impact on asset relative prices. Nevertheless, the long run benefits of price stability due to the adoption of an environmentally friendly monetary policy can outweigh the short run benefits of market neutrality policy.
As key actors of the climate transition, sustainable energy experts can all but avoid facing in their duty difficult situations linked to their role of propelling a major societal change. This hurdle stems from the evergreen polarisation of climate change discussion and the economic importance of the energy sector. It can materialize as misinformation or direct opposition. These difficulties emphasize the need for a strong training of experts; the financial decision-making and technical assessment that they must carry takes place in an informational environment that is itself very polluted.
Notably, the sustainable energy expert needs to steer through lobbying efforts that are carried at different levels. A first dimension of this is the contribution to the political discourse at the national, European and global levels. Concepts such as the perimeter of what is green are regularly challenged, to be enlarged beyond reasonable for economic purposes, while in other places the move to sustainable energy is slowed down by non-renewable but self-branded “transition” energy sectors.
Beyond the political level, acceptance by the general population and academic rigour can also prove deficient and require the expert to master a number of resources to engage with concerns. A particularly telling example of such challenges in the public discourse is that of the resource efficiency of solar energy. On the public opinion side, a documentary by Michael Moore released in early 2020 makes the claim that solar panel cannot compensate in use for the resources they require. In spite of being swiftly debunked, with a backing of a Nature study, damages done to a broad audience are not easily reversed, and Brandolini's law applies: the effort made to debunk falsehoods are larger than that of producing them.
What can be even more challenging for the expert is that controversies can extend to the academic dimension as well. Although the practice of diluting the research consensus is more common in other industries, renewable energies are not spared from it. Thus, on the same topic, a considerable literature is dedicated to the estimation of the energy return on energy invested (EROI) of solar technologies. A EROI value above 1 denotes a net energy gain, and a minimum between 3 and 5 is required for a technology to be competitive. In 2016, a study by two Switzerland-based consultants concluded to a value below one, using an extended concept of EROI and going against most of the previous literature. A response authored by 22 academics then disputed the results, pointing out flaws in the data and methodology to conclude to a value an order of magnitude higher. Earlier, a 2013 paper had concluded that PV and wind power where markedly less efficient than other technologies. Similarly, the response to it pointed a range of errors that would significantly affect the results.
Thus, it is important for the sustainable energy experts to develop the ability to navigate in a complicated informational environment. The task is challenging, as the evolution of the technology is also fast, and the use of data from a few years back can sometime induce significant biases. In particular, the knowledge and understanding of the underlying technologies are important for the decision making, in order to for them to evaluate the available data and produce a valuable guidance.
PKN Orlen, a leading player on the fuels and energy markets, has issued a 7-year green bonds worth EUR 500 million. The proceeds will be used to finance or refinance the company's green projects.
The bonds, which have been assessed by the Climate Bonds Initiative and received a green certificate (the first of its kind for a benchmark issue by a non-financial company in the CEE region), will be listed on Euronext Dublin and the regulated market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
Although the total value of the offered securities was 500 million euros, the demand for bonds reached more than 3 billion euros, with the first 1 billion euros of subscriptions collected in less than an hour and a half after the start of the subscription. During the subscription process, PKN Orlen reduced the yield of the offered securities twice, from the original level of 160-165 basis points (bp) above the euro swap curve, through 135-140 bp, to final level of 125 bp above the euro swap curve. As a result the offered yield is the lowest in the company's history.
The issue was devoted into international market and was mostly subscribed by foreign investors. Finally, green bonds were allocated among 182 investors from 26 countries, with the largest share of 44% held by investors from Central Europe (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), and Poland - 23%. Many international asset management funds participated in the issue, including a large group of green ones. As much as 62% of bonds went to funds focused on investing in green assets (green investors).
Funds raised from the issue will be used to finance green projects implemented by Orlen Group in the construction and acquisition of new production capacity of renewable energy sources, further development of a network of fast chargers for electric cars and fueling infrastructure for buses and hydrogen vehicles, as well as the development of waste recycling facilities.
On 22 and 23 July, the G20 Ministerial meetings under the Italian Presidency were held in Naples with the aim of strengthening the partnership to solve the problems of climate change.
The key topics of the two days discussion between ministers, diplomats and delegations of technicians included: combating climate change, accelerating the ecological transition, making financial flows in line with the Paris Agreement objectives, opportunities for sustainable and inclusive recovery through innovative technological solutions of the energy sector, and building smart, resilient and sustainable cities.
The Meeting resulted in the approval of joint energy and climate communiqué based on three macro areas:
The joint communiqué also acknowledges, for the first time at the G20 level, the inextricable link between energy production, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The G20 recognized the fact that the impacts of climate change will be much lower in the context of a global temperature rise not exceeding 1.5° C than in that of a 2° C increase, as affirmed in the “Global Warming of 1.5° C” IPCC Special Report”. Based on this finding, the Members of the G20 decided to accelerate action to keep this 1.5° C limit on the rise of global temperatures within reach during the critical decade of the 2020s.
A Presidency Statement, attached to the communiqué, highlighted the need to accelerate decarbonization over the next decade by phasing out unabated coal, and the need to stop international public financing of unabated coal power generation and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies within a certain date.
In recent months In recent months, demand for electricity in the Portuguese market has increased due to high temperatures and renewable electricity, mainly generated from wind and solar energy, which has not been sufficient to meet consumption levels. To meet demand, gas was needed to gas gas turbine combined cycle plants throughout the Iberian Peninsula, which sharply triggered the price of electricity.
This is mainly due to the increase in the price of natural gas, and in another, also revealing portion, of the associated carbontax, which already exceeds EUR 50 per tonne.
The trend is for price increases to continue. On the other hand, the cost and price of electricity associated with the production of CO2 emissions are higher from a financial and environmental point of view, and so it is crucial to continue to intensify the focus on renewables, in line with the provisions of the Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality, which Portugal proposes to achieve in 2050.
The price of electricity comes from costs related to the production and sale of electricity, transport and distribution networks, and the commercialization of electricity. The impact of renewable sources positively influences the market price of electricity traded on the Iberian Market due to its low marginal cost, contributing to keeping prices low in the wholesale electricity market and, consequently, reducing the electricity bill of citizens. Between 2016 and 2020, renewables allowed a cumulative savings of EUR 6.1 billion.
In this way, collective self-consumption and renewable energy communities (REC) are enabling a greater stabilization of energy prices in the wholesale electricity market, and it is an excellent opportunity to counter act on fluctuations in electricity prices on the market.
REC and the collective self-consumption are allowing the democratization of energy, enabling self-consumption as well as the sale of thesurplus energy produced fromthe proximity perspective. As the name implies, the community allows the establishment of an agreement between consumers who are "close to the producers who sells the surplus energy produced. RECs promote a better public acceptance of renewable energy projects, as they create opportunities and benefits for participants by promoting increasing energy efficiency in homes, and, consequently, reducing the electricity bill by reducing direct consumption of the public service electricity network (RESP).
RECs have completely altered the energy sector, thus corresponding to another safe and cost-effective renewable electricity supply solution, in addition to inserting the possibility of ensuring and providing flexibility services, essential to the new paradigm of integrated energy system. Through flexible load management and control of generation and storage units, REC's can offer flexibility value, allowing their load or generation profiles to be purposely changed to offer system services. Demand-side flexibility-related activities complement the benefits of RECs and increase their economic potential for members, while also contributing to increased resilience of the energy system.
During the last few months electricity prices in the Spanish spot market (day-ahead and intra-day market) has skyrocketed, moreover since last May when it has gone from 67 €/MWh up to 106 €/MWh in August. In September daily prices have been setting new record after new record, with prices no lower than 127 €/MWh and the highest price so far over 188€/MWh.
Last year, mostly due to COVID-19 restrictions, the average price was 34€/MWh and since 2009 the average price was around 40-50 €/MWh, so what happened during 2021? There are several reasons behind these prices but reports(1)[i]estimated that the main reasons are the rise in the natural gas prices (50%) and the increase of the price of CO2 emissions in Europe (20%).
The EU is gas dependant from other countries as Russia and has implemented the emissions trading system (ETS) to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, for that reason both factors cannot be changed by Spain. Then what can be done to limit this trend and reduce electricity prices?
Short term only changing taxes and fees can reduce the cost of electricity for the users but in the future, Spain must continue to increase the number of renewable energies sources (RES). The only positive about this crisis is that is making very attractive the Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) for renewable sources which allow the building of new RES plants while assuring a proper return of investment.
Also, Spain has issued this September its first auction for green bonds with a volume of 5.000M€ with the aim at financing projects with environmental purposes. Nevertheless, this auction hasn’t decreased the interest on the PPA, being Spain responsible of around a third of the total PPs signed in 12 European countries last year, according to the European platform Re-Source.
This funding and risk hedging mechanisms will help containing the electricity prices in the near future and will help to achieve the environmental goals for 2030.
[i] Recent developements in Spanih retail electricity prices: the role played by the cost of CO2 emission allowances and higher gas prices.Matías Pacce, Isabel Sánchez and Marta Suárez-Varela
The Fifth Virtual Project meeting of GrEnFIn that was supposed to be held in Poland, but it was instead organized virtually (because of COVID-19) on Microsoft TEAMS. The Agenda was planned in 2 days in total, 3 hours each. The meeting took place on 20th and 21st of July, 2:30 PM – 5:30 PM (Brussels Time). During the first day we had the chance to discuss, all the aspects related to the experiences of the Second Summer School (WP3) and First Summer Training (WP7) and the related evaluation results together with the presentation of the design of the GrEnFIn Joint Master Degree; while the second day the sessions covered topics related to WP2 and WP4 validation activities that will be organized in the next few months, the financial and quality intermediate report submitted to EACEA, with an overview of external evaluation presented by WU.
Renewable energy continues to grow fast in the US despite Covid 19. In a remarkable move, the market capitalization of NextEra Energy, the world’s largest producer of wind and solar energy, passed in December 2020 (at more than $145 billion) the one of Exxon Mobil, the oil giant which used to be the ‘Standard Oil’ created by John Rockefeller in 1870 and became ‘Exxon’ in 1972 before merging its operations with Mobil in 1999. Together with the negative prices reached by the WTI crude oil in April 2020, this is the evidence that a page of history is turned for the oil giants and a New Era is indeed taking place.
British Petroleum (BP), the UK-based company which greatly operates in the US and has turned involved in greener activities after the ecological disaster of Deepwater Horizon, the oil platform in the US part of the Gulf of Mexico and the deepest drilled oil field is making its first move into offshore wind via a partnership with Norway-based Equinor (the former Statoil). BP is paying Equinor $1.1 billion for a 50% stake in wind farms Equinor is developing off the coasts of New York and Massachusetts. The projects represent a combined generating capacity of 4.4 Gigawatts, enough to power more than 2 million homes. BP says it hopes to develop 50 Gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030, which is 20 times its 2019 level.
Driving the news in the financial world is the arrival at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management fund, of Paul Bodnar - a climate finance veteran and founder of the clean energy think tank ‘Center for Climate-Aligned Finance”- as Head of Sustainable Investing. According to Blackrock, Bodnar will lead "sustainable research, analytics, product development, and integration of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations into the investment process," and help clients achieve ‘net zero emissions’.
Lastly, it is worth mentioning the book by Bill Gates ‘How to avoid a climate disaster’. The author proposes to analyze in a systematic manner the difference in cost between a fossil fuel – based activity and the same clean one: the premium to pay for being green in in electricity production, manufacturing, and heating. He observes that for cement and steel production as well as the airline industry, clean options at a low price are not presently available while clean versions of bunker fuel for cargoes would be three times more expensive. This analysis would give countries and industries some guidance on the way forward.
As macro-level modelling has become a key tool in guiding climate policies, the manner of representing the green energy sector is ultimately of importance for the way we support it. In particular, the development of green energies happens in a context that can be uneasy for economists where multiple market failures exist. If the financing of the green energy sector is not properly accounted for, with the different obstacles that exist to it, there is a risk that policies adopted are suboptimal.
A strand of studies assume that the green energy sector can develop optimally with regard to essentially one variable, which is the carbon price, or the social cost of carbon (SCC). The exercise consists then in estimating the mapping from the carbon price set to the corresponding energy mix. Moreover, existing scenarios vary in assumptions regarding the technology evolution of the green energy producers, as well as that of the carbon dioxide removal sector.
However, the primary use of the SCC shouldn’t mask the fact that many other conditions need to be met. Some of these challenges are addressed in recent iterations of the EIRIN model, whereby the green energy sector is represented on its own, independently from its brown counterpart. This allows for considering the more specific financing needs and potential constraints that the sector faces, as well as its competitive interaction with traditional energy providers.
Uncertainty and risk are central aspects to address in the design of transition policies, as they can shift the optimal path to take for the economy, and they are especially pervasive in the financial market dynamics. Thus, a better integration of the green energy sector along this dimension can provide a more exhaustive views of conditions that have to be met to achieve a cleaner energy mix.
Finally, in practice, the ability of the green energy sector to scale up optimally depends on its ability to take advantage of policies in place and available funding mechanisms for green projects. There again the figure of the sustainable energy expert is key, to leverage on the understanding of financing constraints and green financial products, so as to minimize operational risk and devise the most efficient growth paths for green energy
In computational finance, state-of-the-art numerical methods and computer methods are adopted to put a financial model into work. Methods like Monte-Carlo simulation, regression and machine learning are universal tools to simulate scenarios and access risks - one may use them for mathematical finance and climate models alike. Learning the numerical methods in finance gives one the tools needed to tackle climate models too.
But do we need financial modelling at all? Maybe you remember the fun question: "How much wealth would you have if you would have put $ 1 in a savings account 2000 years ago?" Investing at 1.5%, we would - theoretically - arrive at 8.6 trillion dollars! This behaviour reflects the time value of money - rational investors prefer to receive money today rather than the same amount of money in the future. It appears as if a small value today corresponds to a large value in the future, or, equivalently, a large value in the future corresponds to a small value today.
Such exponential growth is inherent to many simple financial models, used to value liabilities or future projects' costs and benefits.
However, what if we want to assess the impact of possible future damages? Think, for example, of the destruction caused by climatic calamities like hurricanes or floods in a given area. The probability of such extreme events has increased and will further increase due to climate change, and it is important to estimate the damage they would cause. Having in mind the idea of the time value of money described above, one could be tempted to discount the damage accordingly.
This discounting has, of course, a huge impact if we think about events in a quite far future, like twenty to hundred years: huge costs in the future appear to become small costs, and hence of a lower priority, today.
A consequence of this can be that one hazardously underestimates the priority to prevent future damages.
This is a dangerous misconception: while the valuation of a liability in the previously discussed form is well-grounded, it cannot be applied to access the priorities to fix or prevent future damages.
In [1], we try to tackle this problem by introducing a non-linear discounting for future damages. The so-called "discount factors" are different here, such that preventing environmental damages has a much higher priority.
This is an example of how an accurate understanding of mathematical finance is essential to comparing and understanding future scenarios.
Welcome to computational and mathematical finance.
[1] Christian Fries Discounting Damage:Non-Linear Discounting and Default Compensation, Preprint, 2021
Within the scope of the Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality 2050 and, more specifically, at the level of the National Energy and Climate Plan 2030, the entry of Hydrogen into the Portuguese energy system is an inescapable fact.
The contribution of Green Hydrogen to the energy transition stands out in the possibility of being a complement to the electrification of consumption in general. It should be noted that the role of electrification in terms of mobility, air conditioning or industrial and transport processes is very significant, which is why green Hydrogen may play an important role in terms of the production and efficient allocation of energy resources.
So the question arises, what will the financial and economic plan be like to boost Green Hydrogen in the energy market?
Taking into account the Earlier national and international policies, it is evident that the Green Hydrogen market will be characterized by a demand induced by the offer ( "supplier-induced demand"), where national policies will have a very significant importance to induce producers and consumers to substitute brown energies for green energies that, directly or indirectly, are associated with carbon emissions.
These National policies and incentives should allow:
Considering the information available, the Portuguese model will be characterized by a mixture of direct support with the imposition of some taxes and other obligations, which will gradually increase the cost of the marginal carbon unit - auctions.
The Green Hydrogen auction may follow the molds that, today, are already applied to the solar auction by, for example, the allocation of amounts per batch and limiting the maximum capacity that a single bidder can win.
Do you want to learn more about Green projects risks, returns and investments impacts? GrEnFIn is the project to follow: GrEnFIn - greening energy by promoting the transition to renewable energy sources, thus decarbonizing the EU economy, and the instruments to finance it, accounting for risk, returns and impacts.
On February 25, 2021, the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance has published the “Framework for the issuance of Sovereign Green Bonds”, according to which the first BTP Green will be issued. BTP Green is the new Italian government bond designed to support the environmental goals and the overall sustainability strategy of the Republic of Italy.
The BTP Green bond, maturing on the 30th April 2045 with an accrual date 30th of October 2020, has a 1.50% annual coupon, paid on a semi-annual basis. The settlement date of the transaction was set for the 10th of March, 2021. Around 530 investors have taken part in the transaction with a total amount requested of above 80 billion Euros, the biggest debut sovereign green bond from a European issuer to date.
The transition to a climate-neutral economy by 2050 means transforming its energy and transport infrastructure together with the need for a substantial investment in its stock of existing buildings and its industry. Neither the public nor the private sector can meet this investment challenge alone. Therefore, to achieve these common objectives, large volumes of sustainable finance will need to be mobilized by the public and private sectors working together more closely than ever. This is a key rationale for launching BTP Green.
Through the issue of Sovereign Green Bonds, Italy will finance public expenditures intended to contribute to the achievement of one or more of the following environmental objectives of the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy:
Moreover, the use of proceeds will help Italy support the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
The Greek government is committed to the withdrawal of lignite power plants located in areas of the region of Western Macedonia (6 units of 4,438 MW) and the Municipality of Megalopolis in the Peloponnese region (2 units of 850 MW) by 2028 and for this reason “The Just Transition Development Plan” of these areas has been prepared, with the aim of creating strategic development opportunities for the regeneration of local economies, securing jobs and creating new ones.
According to the plan (November 2020), which is a complete road map, the transformation of the areas will be achieved through the development of the primary, secondary and tertiary production sector, and the utilization of the existing human resources. The radical transformation of the economies of the regions through new activities is required, in order to be able to maintain and strengthen the economic and social structure so that the afore mentioned areas become sustainable and inclusive.
The plan is based on five growth pillars (Green - clean energy, Smart farming, Sustainable tourism, Craft - industry - trade, Digital economy and education) which are fully in line with EU policy objectives for smarter, greener, more connected, the most social and close to the citizen Europe.
These five (5) pillars support the transition to a new economic model, which will highlight modern and clean forms of energy, but at the same time will be diversified, releasing the growth perspective of more sectors of the economy supported by the simultaneous improvement of infrastructure and alternative utilization of the areas used by the lignite mines.
The financing of the project will be achieved through increased tax incentives for investments in the regions, as well as the use of resources from the European Just Transition Platform (JTP), the new NSRF, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, EU Competitive Programs and national resources (Green Fund, Industrial Areas Development Fee). Land uses for lignite mine sites will also be determined.
The Summer School is targeted to master students who are interested in green energy and sustainable finance problems. The Summer School will be held between the 7th and the 11th of June 2021 in Katowice, Poland .
For more information please check GrEnFIn Summer School.
The Summer training is a short learning experience of the GrEnFIn Project targeted for professionals: the goal is to test the first draft of professional module in order to implement contents and methodologies. The Summer Training will be held between the 7th and the 9th of June 2021 in Katowice, Poland.
For more information please check GrEnFIn Summer Training.
The Fourth Virtual Project meeting of GrEnFIn that was supposed to be held in Paris, but it was instead organized virtually (because of COVID-19) through Microsoft TEAMS. The Agenda was planned in 2 days in total, 3 hours each. The meeting took place on 14th and 15th of December, 2.30 PM – 5.30 PM (Brussels Time). During the first day of the meeting partners discussed the aspects related to the WP3, WP4 and WP6 with a focus on the design of the professional module and the feasibility of the Multiple or Joint Degree course; while the second day the sessions covered topics related to the financial and interim report, with an overview of the internal and external evaluation coming from the WU partner. As usual, the last session has been entirely dedicated to list what will happen in the coming 6 months with tasks for each partner.
Partecipa al primo Umbrella Organization Meeting del progetto internazionale GrEnFIn: Greening Energy Market and Finance, finalizzato a sviluppare programmi formativi in materia di Green Energy Finance che forniscano le competenze professionali del Sustainable Energy Manager, figura ritenuta rilevante per supportare la transizione verso un’economia più sostenibile.
L'evento online si terrà il 17 ottobre dalle ore 10.30 alle ore 12.30.
L’obiettivo dell’incontro è, da una parte, condividere i tratti salienti del progetto, con particolare riferimento al modulo relativo alla progettazione della formazione professionale, dall’altra, approfondire alcune tematiche tecniche di contesto, a cura di alcuni Associate Partner del progetto.
Alla fine del meeting è previsto un momento aperto al confronto per raccogliere feedback dal mondo professional utili alle fasi successive del progetto.
Per confermare la presenza all’evento e ricevere maggiori informazioni vi preghiamo di contattarci all’indirizzo info@grenfin.eu.
GOOGLE MEET LINK per partecipare alla conferenza: https://meet.google.com/vuq-usds-moi
L'agenda dell'evento:
10,30 – Prof. Silvia Romagnoli, UNIBO - Ugo Canonico e Daniela Bottega, Hera
Presentazione Progetto GrEnFIn: prospettive accademiche e professionali
11,00 - Luca Bartolucci, Prometeia
Climate change risk: le principali sfide per le Banche e spunti per impostare le analisi di impatto
11,30 – Davide Tabanelli, Nomisma Energia
Emission Trading System competitività Sistema industriale italiano
12,00 – Gaëlle Ridolfi, Hera
L’applicazione del framework Sustainable Development Goals nel Gruppo Hera -
12,30 - Q&A e attività di validazione
GOOGLE MEET LINK to join the conference: https://meet.google.com/ugv-vvtf-dfu
Join a conference with testimonials dedicated to an emergent and new professional profile, the Sustainable Energy Expert, able to assess the risks of the sector due to the exposure to fossil fuels resources, and to identify effective strategies for decarbonization by looking at the characteristics of the green energy market and new financial instruments to finance the transition.
The online event will take place on October 15th at 10.30 am. The session will be interest to students, academics and professionals working, studying or researching within the green energy sector. The event is organized to present the Erasmus+ KA2 Knowledge Alliances project (N. 612408) GrEnFIn: Green Energy Market and Finance, originates from the analysis of the role of the energy sector in the EU2030 strategy and its need to align to the low-carbon energy transition and circular economy goals of the European Union (EU).
The event agenda:
10.30 – 11.00 AM
11.00 – 11.30 AM
Carbon Neutral 2050: All Abord!
On May 21, 2020, the Portuguese National Energy and Climate Plan (PNEC2030) was approved establishing the objectives of the national climate and energy policy meeting what was defined by the Green deal.
The Energy and Climate Plan establishes:
The energy efficiency and the zero emissions buildings goals can be reach by betting on the efficient use of resources and the rehabilitation and renovation of the building; reducing the consumption of primary energy in various sectors, such as public administration, industry and buildings.
In terms of renewables, the Plan invests in energy from renewable sources by doubling the solar capacity (promoted through auctions for the allocation of reception capacity in the Electricity Network); betting on the production and incorporation of renewable gases (hydrogen) and increasing wind production.
Another of the objectives included in the Plan is the development of an innovative and competitive industry, which will be achieved with decarbonization, digitalization and circularity.
To help all the sectors to achieve these ambitious national objects there will be need Energy specialists with knowledge not only in the technical field but also in the financial and sustainability fields.
GrEnFIn can and will help all the professional and students to be the Energy Specialist that each sector will need to achieve this energy transition plan.
We are living strange and agitated times, just when Brexit and the migration crisis threatened the identity of the EU, COVID-19 has struck harshly all countries and citizens and turn our lives into this 'new normality'. It is widely accepted that the environmental degradation is related to the origin of this and future pandemics so our focus should shift to prevent climate change and adopt a planetary health approach in our activities.
The EU must turn these challenges into opportunities to transform the Union into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, leading the fight against climate change.
For that purpose, the EU has elaborated a plan to make the economy sustainable, the European Green Deal, launched the 11th of December of 2019. The main objectives are:
The European Green Deal provides an action plan to
The EU aims to be climate neutral in 2050 and to boost this action, the past 17th of September 2020 the 2030 Climate Target Plan was presented. This plan set a more ambitious and cost-effective path to achieving climate neutrality raising the EU’s ambition on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, from the previously agreed 40% to at least 55% below 1990 levels by 2030.
This plan will stimulate the creation of green jobs and continue cutting greenhouse emissions whilst growing its economy. At the same time, it will encourage international partners to increase their ambition to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5°C and avoid the most severe consequences of climate change.
This new regulation frame will require new professionals with not only a technical knowledge but also strong financial and sustainability background. For that reason, new multidisciplinary educational curricula such as the one developed in the GrEnFIn project will be mandatory.
In addition to the significant economic, social and political implications globally and nationally, the spread of the coronavirus has greatly affected the energy sector in all forms of energy. According to the recent study “Impact of the Coronavirus Crisis on the Greek Energy Market” of IENE – Institute of Energy for South East Europe, the most obvious impact was the sudden and sharp decline in demand leading to a significant decline in prices, especially in the oil sector, but also in the gas sector and secondarily in electricity.
The domestic oil market was significantly affected, especially during the outbreak of the pandemic. Gasoline consumption decreased by 60%, while diesel, mainly due to agricultural crops and increased domestic transport, showed a milder decline of 35% -40%.
Although there was a decline in domestic gas demand, it was rather marginal and did not reach oil levels. There was a significant drop in gas prices (mainly LNG), due to developments in international markets (eg a large drop in the price of crude oil), while there was a large penetration of LNG in the electricity generation of Greece, resulting in 64% of the gas supply in the first half of 2020 to be LNG.
The pandemic crisis led to a significant reduction in the total electricity load of Greece, which was probably due to the fact that commercial consumption decreased with a parallel increase in domestic, without having largely stopped industrial activity. This reduction, along with a fall in CO2 prices, has led to very low energy prices. A number of consumers have had problems paying their bills, creating a liquidity crisis in the market. Significant effects were also felt in the energy-intensive industry, which inevitably affected the financial results of suppliers in the retail sector.
The coronavirus caused cancellations and delays in major RES and energy storage projects. Ongoing RES investments have faced several difficulties due to delays in response from licensing services, restrictions on the movement and residence of their executives and technical staff, delays in equipment delivery schedules, and the rectification of problems in existing projects, among others.
Delays were recorded in renovation and energy upgrade projects of buildings
A positive effect of the coronavirus pandemic was the significant drop in air pollution in Athens, but also in other major cities in Greece.
The results of the European Public Survey of November 2018, aimed to collect the public perceptions on climate change and energy in Europe and Russian and showed clear evidence that citizens do worry about energy security beyond affordable supply and generally find dependence on fossil fuels worrisome. Their preferences for electricity produced from renewable sources is clear and has been confirmed by the result of the GrEnFIn Survey of beginning 2020. Besides the new evidences seem to believe that a new professional figure is expected to be pivotal in the green transition. An investment in education is seen as a possible solution to facilitate the opening of a sustainable era.
We recall that GrEnFIn is mainly committed to face the new challenges of a transforming world with an inclusive global view by designing an innovative and interdisciplinary European approach and framework to educate the "hero of the green economy", i.e. the Sustainable Energy Expert, having the pivotal role to assure for a vital economy with an environment-preserving behavior of companies and stakeholders. This way we are expected to contribute to the decarbonizing process of the EU economy through investment in knowledge and competences for either high education and professional training in the Energy Sector which must be aligned to the stakeholders’ needs. The collections of their needs have been realized through a consultation and a consecutive discussion/exposition of the results in the GrEnFIn survey.
Responses clearly show that the energy transition is real and is now. Consequently it is clearly highlighted by respondents that there is a significant need for the professional figure of the Sustainable Energy Expert. Their preferences within Engineering skills are also clear: the most relevant are the ones related to Energy networks, Smart grids and Renewable generation.
GrEnFIn curriculum aims to educate the Professional figure of Sustainable Energy Expert by designing an innovative and interdisciplinary European approach and framework which support his pivotal role in the energy transition phase. The design of the educational path aims to fill the gap in the current educational offer and comes from the results of the report of the already existing educational offers and the needs of the stakeholders.
The new course will be innovative in both the contents and the methodologies. The drafted path is multidisciplinary and involves three different tracks, i.e. the technological, the financial and the economical one. As a matter of fact the new professional must be able to face the sustainable challenge of an energy transition and suggest coherent solutions in line with the EU target and the more advanced renewable technologies. Besides the implied natural risk must be managed and hedged through financial engineering products, designed ad hoc.
The innovation in methodologies will be favored by the mixed composition of the faculty which will include academics as well as professionals. As a matter of fact professionals will approach students with a real problems oriented approach enriched by internship experiences, teamworking and soft skills training.
We strongly believe that the joint efforts of Academia and Industry can play a significant role now as well as in the future, supporting the development of a low carbon world. And we are convinced that, by shaping new, young generations of professionals, the GrEnFIn project will contribute to this collaborative journey toward a more sustainable, and ultimately more just, society.
The information about the First GrEnFIn Summer School is now online. Photos, testimony and didactical material of students and lecturers are now available. Despite the Pandemic emergency the Summer School took successfully place, even if we have been forced to held it entirely online. We are glad to say that between the 8th and the 11th of June we had few intense and incredibly satisfying days of work and collaboration between lecturers, students and auditors.
The Third Virtual Project meeting of GrEnFIn that was supposed to be held in Bologna, was instead took place virtually (because of the circumstances of COVID-19) through the help of Microsoft TEAMS. As you can see the Agenda was planned in 2 days in total, 3 hours each. The meeting took place on 15th and 16th of June, 2.30 PM – 5.30 PM (Brussels Time). The time table is taking as reference the Brussels Time Zone. In order to overcome the Time Zone matter, and make the meeting participation feasible for our Brazilian partner, we planned the schedule of each day between the 2.30 PM and the 5.30 PM (Brussels Time). The meeting sessions were tailored in order to be consistent with the project development stage and make the participation efficient for all the partners even at distance. During the meeting we had the chance to discuss all the aspects related to the First edition of the GrEnFIn Summer School and thanks to the presentation of the HEIs partners, we gave the official start to the WP4 – Pilot Class activities. We recall the Quality assessment process, dedicated a moment for a feedback about the First Progress Report and saw together the next milestones of the Project. Every morning before the Virtual project meeting, we have sent the presentations that were on the Agenda for the day, in order to give all partners the opportunity to get in the topics in advance.
The GrEnFIn stakeholders survey is officially closed and we want to thank all involved stakeholders for their precious collaboration. The analysed results paint an interesting picture of the energy transition, offering regional and sector insights on the challenges and needs of different companies. The overall message, in a nutshell, is that the energy transition is real, is now, and will get more and more relevant in the future; to be able to handle it, there is a clear need of effective collaboration between Industry and Academia, from graduate studies to life-long learning. For the full results please see the Report on the consultation
The Second Project meeting of GrEnFIn originally scheduled to be held in Vienna, instead took place virtually, this was because of the current COVID-19 pandemic emergency. The Consortium agreed anyway to carry on with the work and meet on Microsoft TEAMS platform, on the 21st, 22nd, and 23th April 2020. The sections where from 3.00 PM till 6.00 PM (Brussels Time) in order to allow all the partners to participate despite the different time zones.
All Consortium Partners participated at the meeting. The first day Prof. Silvia Romagnoli introduced the meeting with an effective recap of the updates, adjustment and results achieved during the start-up phase of the project. UNIBO then presented the latest outcomes of WP2: stakeholders consultation, validations activities and survey, and the University Paris-Dauphine together with Pixel had a session to deeper explain the importance of the website and a focus on disseminations events, also considering the current international situation. The 22nd was focused to the Quality (WP9) and Evaluation Plan (WP10) and WP3: Draft curriculum development with a preliminary draft of the summer school structure. During the last meeting day the focus was on Project Management aspects. First the Project Management Framework (WP1) was presented and discussed and then the rest of the section was dedicated to refresh and discuss about the upcoming first internal progress report. The meeting was a good opportunity for all partners to have a look at the activities and Todolist of each WP for the next months before the First Summer School and the following Project Meeting scheduled next June.
It is now possible to enroll in the first GrEnFIn Summer School that will take place in Bologna on 8-11 giugno 2020.
The surveys to determine what is the skillset needed to shape the professional role of the Sustainable energy expert is available.
The Kick-off meeting took place in Bologna (IT) on 27-29 November 2019. Representatives from the University of Bologna presented to the partners the project and the activities to be carried out. The meeting was also an opportunity for the partners to get to know each other and to discuss all details related to the project's activities. The partners presented the institutions involved. At the end of the meeting all the partners had a clear view of the future project's implementation, the financial rules and the next activities..
The GrEnFin project has been funded, by the European Commission in the framework of the the Erasmus+ Programme with the aim to to provide the Energy Sector’s stakeholders (energy providers, private companies, research institutes,…) with the figure of the Sustainable Energy experts professional, i.e. European high skilled professionals capable to face the changing challenges in the field with an inclusive global logic.