News
The impact of rising gasoline prices on households in Sweden, Georgia, and Latvia – Is this time different?
15 December 2023
SITE and FREE Network researchers delve into Europe's rising fuel costs, post-geopolitical shifts. Focused on gasoline and diesel prices, the study assesses household impacts, advocating nuanced policy responses to address economic challenges in the wake of global energy crises.
The EU gas purchasing mechanism: A game-changer or a storm in a teacup?
06 November 2023
In a landmark move amid energy volatility, the EU adopts AggregateEU for joint gas procurement. This brief, written by SITE researchers Chloé Le Coq and Elena Paltseva, evaluates challenges in gas market dynamics following the energy crisis, addressing design issues of this innovative mechanism.
Exploring the impact from the Russian gas squeeze on the EU’s greenhouse gas reduction efforts
15 March 2023
Throughout 2022, the reduction in Russian gas imports to the EU and the resilience of European energy markets have been subject of significant public discourse and policy-making. Of particular concern has been the EU’s ability to maintain its environmental goals. In this policy brief, researchers from SITE and the University of Pennsylvania aim to reevaluate the consequences from the loss of Russian gas and the EU’s response to it on greenhouse gas emissions in the region.
Who benefitted from the gasoline tax cut in Sweden?
02 September 2022
Against the background of fast rising gasoline and diesel prices in 2022, a number of European countries have reduced fuel tax rates, often in the form of temporary “gas tax holidays”. In this policy brief, SITE researchers Julius Andersson and Celina Tippmann, analyse the tax incidence by comparing the gasoline price development in Sweden to that in Denmark, where the fuel tax rate remained unchanged.
Hedging EU’s “winter risk” by curbing gas demand: Solidarity, nudge, and market solutions
16 August 2022
The concern of Russian gas supply disruption and its implications has never been as serious. Chloé Le Coq, Professor at the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (CRED) and a Research Fellow at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), discusses how nudging energy consumers to lower their demand may support the plans of the European Commission (EC).
How can higher energy prices for oil and gas affect green transition?
18 March 2022
Can oil and gas sanctions and EU’s plans to reduce dependence on Russian energy affect EU transition to renewables? Elena Paltseva, Associate Professor at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), shares her insights and discusses the current European growth strategy.
How will climate change and the need for energy transformation affect environmental policy in Eastern Europe?
10 January 2022
The need for urgent climate action and energy transformation away from fossil fuels is widely acknowledged. Yet, current country plans for emission reductions do not reach the requirements to contain global warming under 2°C. What is worse, there is even reasonable doubt about the commitment to said plans given recent history and existing future investment plans into fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure development. This policy brief shortly summarizes the presentations and discussions at the SITE Development Day Conference, held on December 8, 2021, focusing on climate change policies and the challenge of a green energy transition in Eastern Europe.
Green concerns and salience of environmental issues in Eastern Europe
31 August 2021
Policy brief: Changes in individual behavior are an essential component of the planet’s effort to reduce carbon emissions. But such changes would not be possible without individuals acknowledging the threat of anthropogenic climate change. This brief discusses the climate change risk perceptions across Europe.
Carbon tax regressivity and income inequality
17 May 2021
Policy brief: A common presumption in economics is that a carbon tax is regressive – that the tax disproportionately burdens low-income households. However, this presumption originates from early research on carbon taxes that used US data, and little is known about the factors that determine the level of regressivity of carbon taxation across countries.
The future of energy storage: challenges and opportunities
26 April 2021
Policy brief: As the dramatic consequences of climate change are starting to unfold, addressing the intermittency of low-carbon energy sources, such as solar and wind, is crucial. The obvious solution to intermittency is energy storage. However, its constraints and implications are far from trivial. Developing and facilitating energy storage is associated with technological difficulties as well as economic and regulatory problems that need to be addressed to spur investments and foster competition. With these issues in mind, the annual Energy Talk, organized by the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics, invited three experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of energy storage.