15 November 2022 - Final event

PARIS REINFORCE held its final event at Sorbonne, in Paris, on November 15

After 3.5 very productive and scientifically exciting years, in which we worked with thousands of stakeholders to co-create modelled pathways for supporting climate action in Europe and worldwide, the PARIS REINFORCE research project is coming to an end. To celebrate what we achieved and to effectively disseminate the knowledge co-/produced all these years, the PARIS REINFORCE consortium hosted its final event in Paris, France, on November 15, 2022, following an internal project meeting the day before (November 14, 2022) at the same venue!

The policy event, "Delivering on the Paris Agreement in a fragmenting world", held at the breathtaking Salle Louis Liard de la Sorbonne (link), was co-organised with the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne university and the World Energy Council – France. On the day, 61 participants attended the final conference and had the opportunity to learn about our key findings, ask their questions, and raise their concerns, allowing to discuss together on the future of the EU and the planet

The conference agenda included four main sessions, following some welcome notes and opening remarks by all co-hosts, as well as a brief overview of the project by Prof. Haris Doukas (National Technical University of Athens).

In the first session, "Quantifying the road to Paris", Dr. Shivika Mittal (Imperial College London) presented core PARIS REINFORCE outputs regarding global climate action, followed by a regional deep-dive with an explicit focus on all major economies by Dr. Lorenza Campagnolo (Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change). The panel discussion, chaired by Mr. Jean-Eudes Moncomble (World Energy Council – France), included a presentation from the International Energy Agency as well as a vivid discussion between Dr. Glen Peters (CICERO), Dr. Xi Yang (Harvard University), Mr. Apostolos Petropoulos (International Energy Agency), Mr. Bruno Ladsous (Nos Energies - Occitanie Environnement), and the audience.

In the second session, "Towards Net Zero Emissions in the EU", Mr. Baptiste Boitier (SEURECO) attempted a detailed deep-dive into European Paris-compliant pathways and respective policy implications that were produced in the project, with Dr. Jakob Wachsmuth (Fraunhofer ISI) offering a further focus on bottlenecks to EU industrial decarbonisation. The panel discussion, chaired by Dr. Alexandros Nikas (National Technical University of Athens), included a heated debate among Jean-Eudes Moncomble (World Energy Council – France), Yves Marignac (Negawatt), Dr. Philine Warnke (Fraunhofer ISI), and Dr. Alessandro Chiodi (E4SMA), while the Q&A with the audience offered a more interactive setting.

Following the lunch break Dr. Alevgul Sorman (Basque Centre for Climate Change) in a targeted session, "Enabling climate policy support", offered a detailed presentation of how the project's flagship exchange platform, I²AM PARIS, has facilitated decision-making, how it plans to secure sustainability beyond the project, and what critical lessons were learnt during PARIS REINFORCE. Dr. Alexandros Nikas (National Technical University of Athens) and Dr. Georgios Xexakis (HOLISTIC) joined her in a short panel discussion on the platform's next steps, chaired by Ms. Elin May (Cambridge University).

The final session, "Planning in the light of today’s threats to sustainability", tackle all emerging challenges to EU and international sustainability, including a presentation on the optimal allocation of COVID-19 packages in major economies and a focus on the EU by Dr. Dirk-Jan van de Ven (Basque Centre for Climate Change), a take on today's energy crisis and what stakeholder-informed modelling exercises for Greece and Italy revealed by Dr. Georgios Xexakis (HOLISTIC), and a presentation of the prospect and costs of phasing out Russian fossil-fuel imports by Dr. Marc Vielle (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). This session too was followed by a very interesting panel discussion among project members and external experts, in response to questions from the audience; this discussion was chaired by Prof. Haris Doukas (National Technical University of Athens) and joined by Dr. Georg Zachmann (Bruegel), Dr. Ajay Gambhir (Imperial College London), Prof. Jean-Luc Gaffard (Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis – OFCE), and Mr. Sylvain Hercberg (Independent expert).