Thomas-Olivier Léautier and Fabien Roques on the European Carbon Challenge

Thomas-Olivier Léautier, Toulouse School of Economics, University of Toulouse Graduate School of Management, France and Fabien Roques, Compass Lexecon, University Paris Dauphine, France. While directing the Florence School of Regulation’s Executive Course to master Electricity Markets, 18-19 January 2016, in Florence, Italy, Thomas-Olivier Léautier and Fabien Roques met with reporter Nicholas Barrett to discuss the relationship between regulation and economics as well as the EU’s efforts to tackle climate change. Thomas-Olivier Léautier: “We need to reduce our carbon emissions while protecting our standard of living. Therefore, we need to, if possible, consume less electricity and produce less CO2 as we produce electricity. That requires tens of hundreds of billions of euros of investment. The more efficiently we do this… the cheaper this massive transformation is going be for society… it's super important.” Fabien Roques: “The European Commissions, even though it’s been criticised, is doing a good job even with the limited powers it’s got.” Fabien Roques: “In Europe, each country is very small regarding climate change compared to America and China, so having a coordinated approach to climate change is the only way for Europe to be one of the leaders on climate change.”