Outreach
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.
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.
Natalia Fabra participated in the V Foro Solar 2018
She participated in the panel “Are the current market arrangements suitable for the development of solar photovoltaics in Spain?” She explained that over the next decade, market prices in the wholesale electricity market will likely fall well below the average costs of the new investments. She advocated for the use of auctions that would determine a stable price per MWh. Competition among bidders would drive such prices close to average costs.
Her presentation may be downloaded here (Spanish). Also, her article on this topic, “También es Economía cuando hablamos de renovables“, may be consulted here.