EAERE2020 Conference

EAERE2020 Conference

EAERE2020 Conference

LIFE Climate CAKE PL was present at the 25th EAERE2020 economic conference, organized on line during two thematic sessions on 25 and 26 June 2020. The EAERE conference is a global conference organized by the European Association of Environmental Economists (European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists).

On June 25, 2020, Mr. Jan Witajewski – Baltvilks, a CAKE Expert, participated in the session entitled “Risk and Growth”, during which environmental and climate threats were analyzed as part of behavioral, financial and optimal policy making perspectives. During this meeting, the CAKE expert gave a presentation on “Test, Heterogeneity, Elasticity of Substitution and Green Growth.”

On June 26, 2020, Mr. Jan Witajewski – Baltvilks participated in the panel during the session entitled “Policy Session (RFF-CMCC-EDF): Policies to support workers and communities in the transition to clean energy economies in the US and the EU”. During this session, panelists discussed the impact that transformation into clean energy economies will have on livelihoods and stability of local and regional economies, and how effective policies should be designed to support employees and communities in this transformation. During the meeting, Ms. Elena Verdolini from the University of Brescia presented an outline of the discussion on the concept of a just transformation that appeared in the Paris Agreement. Mr. Felix Mailleux, from the European Trade Union Confederation briefly presented the history of the “just transition” concept, where the most important element is the solidarity mechanism, development of local economies and development of new development strategies. Mrs. Hanna Brauers, from the Research Group of the University of Technology Berlin, gave a presentation on “Lessons learned from phasing out coal in Germany”, and Mrs. Marion Dumas, Grantham Research Institute, LSE gave presentations “Building a Just transition Policy Database”.

Mr. Jan Witajewski – Baltvilks, CAKE Expert gave a presentation on “Cost of Transition from the Workers’ Perspective”. In the presentation he presented that the analysis of transformation costs from the employees’ perspective was prepared on the basis of the d-PLACE general equilibrium model, and the assumption was to reduce emissions in Europe by 80% by 2050. Mr. Jan Witajewski provided also information on the structure of employees in mining sector in Poland  in relation to to age and education. He emphasized that miners who lose their jobs will be forced to take up a new one, which, in principle, will be less paid and their work will be less efficient.

The main results of the analysis are presented below:

• Realization of the net-zero target in Europe by 2050 means the termination of the coal sector in Poland.

• The total loss for employees in Poland related to the extinction of mining will be 0.25% of GDP in 2040.

• Standard estimates of climate policy costs do not take into account changes in employee productivity.