Authors: Nicholas Asford and Andrea Renda

Series: CEPS Special Reports No of pp: 98

There is a growing awareness that climate change is posing an existential threat to humankind, largely as a result of our massive manipulation of the environment. The EU has set itself long-term goals for decarbonisation, but its individual policies are not always fully consistent with these objectives. Indeed, existing policies are unlikely to promote the systemic innovation that is needed to shift EU production and consumption paradigms towards enhanced sustainability.

In this accessible and timely report, which is the fruit of collaboration between CEPS and the i24c platform, the authors look at EU policies and propose ten steps to align EU rules with long-term objectives. This endeavour bears important consequences for the EU’s better regulation strategy, innovation policy and sectoral policies in many fields.

Nicholas Ashford is Professor of Technology and Policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Andrea Renda is Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Regulatory Policy unit at CEPS and Senior Research Fellow at Duke University.