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In early 2019, four research projects all funded under the same H2020 call seeking research on social innovation in the energy sector embarked on their three-year journeys. Each of the projects started with the aim to study one or multiple forms of social innovation in energy (SIE), such as energy cooperatives, prosumerism, new financing, business, and service models, as well as associated governance arrangements, to name a few. What all 4 projects had in common was the mission to shed light on what drives social innovation in energy, in which environments social innovation flourishes and what factors determine whether social innovation successfully contributes to reaching the European Union's goal to move towards a low-carbon energy system in which energy is more secure, sustainable, and affordable - and that puts European citizens at its heart.

This report aims to understand how to handle energy performance targets by moving beyond individual buildings towards a district level. This is a relatively new endeavour in both scientific research and realised projects. One route towards this could be to have the minimum energy performance requirements imposed by the EPBD also be applied to a cluster of buildings in a specific district. In practice, this means setting legal requirements that enable communities to become zero or positive energy districts (municipal or regional requirements). From a financial point of view, a zero-energy district (ZED) or positive energy district (PED) project needs to be investible whilst providing the municipality and district-dwellers with low-carbon solutions that provide co-benefits to the citizens and local authorities (such as, inter alia, better wellbeing and health, job creation, increased GDP and tourism). In order to assess potential cost and benefits, this paper finds the EPBD’s cost-benefit calculation methodology for the setting of minimum energy performance requirements can be utilised on a district scale by aggregating the individual buildings., JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewables

This report discusses the progress towards the 2020 Energy Efficiency targets and the implementation of the provisions of the Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU (EED), providing an overview of the main energy trends in the European Union with special focus on the period 2005-2018. It is based on the latest available EUROSTAT data and on the information provided by Member States in their Annual Reports 2020 submitted under the EED. Our analysis has shown that 2015 was a turning point for the progress towards the energy efficiency targets due to a reversal in the preceding 5-year declining consumption trend of 2010-2014. Final energy consumption increased mildly in 2015 and continued to rise in 2016, 2017 and 2018; the latest increase in 2018 point to a gap of 3.5% with respect to the EU final energy consumption target of 2020. Primary energy consumption decreased slightly in 2018 leading to a gap of 4.6% with respect to EU 2020 target. At end-use level, rising energy consumption in transport and industry were the main causes of this progress slowdown. The assessment of the 2020Annual Reports generally confirmed good progress with regards to implementation of various provisions the Energy Efficiency Directive including those stipulated in Article 7 on energy efficiency obligations. While a few Member States reported new measures which can be viewed positively in light of the need to narrow the gap towards the targets, more intensified policy efforts are needed. Beyond the various information gaps identified by this report, our analysis suggests that achieving central government requirements on energy efficiency may be challenging and accelerated efforts across all sectors are crucial in ensuring that sufficient progress is made in the coming years., JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewables

The Energy Union strategy ―built on the dimensions of energy security, internal energy market, energy efficiency, decarbonisation, research, competitiveness and innovation― aims to ensure secure, sustainable, affordable and competitive energy for all its citizens and businesses in the midst of the ongoing energy transition. The 2030 climate and energy framework sets targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the share of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency. Under the Energy Union Governance Regulation, Member States were required to adopt integrated national energy and climate plans (NECPs) for the period 2021-2030, laying out their national contributions to the EU targets as well as their plans of accompanying policies and measures. This report represents the first of the series of reports assessing the energy efficiency dimension of the national energy and climate plans of EU Member States submitted under the Energy Union Governance. It provides an assessment of the national contributions towards the EU energy efficiency target in 2030, and presents an overview of all relevant policies and measures reported by the Member States in their plans. The implementation of key provisions of EU directives based on the information found in the NECPs is discussed, and recommendations on how to improve the future policy and reporting framework are provided. Whilst several positive developments have been identified in this analysis, the assessment has also highlighted the need to step up the energy efficiency ambition set by Member States, including the need to provide more robust evidence of the impact of proposed policies and actions against the various targets and requirements set in the context of EU directives., JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewables

The untapped / hidden benefits of environmental policies are huge, this piece of research showcases and places a monetary value on the added benefits to our health, society and the economy that environmental investments and policy linked to energy efficiency can bring. Findings show that green policies can improve both our health and the economy and can go hand-in-hand. This study provides guidance to policy and decision-makers in developing a methodology for the inclusion of multiple benefits in a cost/benefit assessment of energy efficiency policy. It is envisaged that providing a macroeconomic understanding of the wider benefits of energy efficiency in buildings will encourage policy-makers and investors to develop and quantify the benefits of more effective energy efficiency policies and programmes and drive higher levels of renovation, thus supporting the EU's Renovation Wave. This Report provides the European Commission (EC), the national administrations in charge of implementing EU energy efficiency policies (such as the EPBD) in Member States (MS) and other decision makers seeking to include multiple benefits in their policies, building programmes and financial programmes with: • Information on identified benefits; • A methodology for an enhanced consideration of wider benefits, in particular in the calculation of cost-optimal minimum energy performance requirements under the EPBD; and • A toolkit to calculate and quantify / measure the monetary value of these impacts, from a policy and investor standpoint., JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewables

This report discusses the latest status of energy consumption trends in the EU-28, in the four main energy consuming sectors: residential, tertiary, transport and industry. During the last years, there have been notable efforts by the European Union to cut down on energy consumption and improve energy efficiency in the framework of the EU energy consumption targets within the Europe 2020 and 2030 strategies. The report explores the energy consumption progress from 2000 to 2018 in the four main sectors of the economy. Special focus is drawn on changes in the use of electricity and natural gas, as well as penetration of renewable energy sources in the energy mix. Energy indicators such as energy intensity and energy consumption per capita are also analysed. The report includes an analysis of the most important factors influencing energy consumption trends such as economic growth, population, heating demand, household characteristics and energy prices., JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewables

The implementation of the EU 2020 energy and climate targets triggered the transformation of Europe’s neighbourhoods to net-zero energy districts (NZED). The Report review and analyses the cases of frontrunner municipalities In Europe. They set ambitious targets to reduce their energy demand and to increase the share of their energy supply from local renewable energy sources. These targets are set in different ways and the timeline to meet the agreed target at a local level varies from one municipality to another. Hvar, a remote Croatian Island, as well as the municipality of Val-de-Ruz, in Switzerland, have set a target to be self-sufficient. However, the former aims at meeting its self-sufficiency target to be 20% by 2020 while the latter aims to be totally self-sufficient by 2030. Similarly, the municipality of Helsingor in Denmark aims for carbon neutrality by 2050 while Cloughjordan in Ireland aimed at building an eco-village in a rural area. Other municipalities such as Salzburg in Austria developed a 2050 smart city roadmap while Valby in Denmark set a renewable energy target and the municipality of Zaragoza in Spain developed and implemented a holistic bioclimatic design at neighbourhood level. Other important features of the seven districts analysed in this report are the emergence of new actors and the innovative governance structures set by municipalities to ensure all necessary actors are involved, and the use of modern technologies (such as smart meters, smart communication tools, social media platform, 3D-Scanning and Building Information Models – BIM). In all the cases analysed, public finance (EU and national) has been instrumental in unleashing the transition to net-zero energy districts., JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewables

The report assesses the Second Long-Term Renovation Strategies (LTRS) submitted by Member States in 2017 (LTRS 2017) in compliance with Article 4 of the Energy Efficiency Directive (Directive 2012/27/EU). The Energy Efficiency Directive introduced the requirement for Member States to establish a long-term strategy for mobilising investment in the renovation of the national stock of residential and commercial buildings, both public and private. The report provides an updated overview of the assessment of the LTRS and evaluation of the strategies' compliance with the Directive and checked if all the requirements were adequately addressed in each national strategy., JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewables

The Energy Efficiency Directive was adopted in 2012, establishing indicative targets for 2020 and a set of binding measures in various sectors of the economy at national level. In compliance with the Directive’s provisions, Member States are required to present the progress and efforts made in the so-called National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAPs) every three years, starting from 2014. This report, which analyses the 2014 plans submitted by Member States, provides an overview of the national energy efficiency targets, outlines planned or implemented end-use and supply level measures and evaluates the energy savings resulting from the implementation of these measures., JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewables

EU Member States have been developing policies and measures to reduce the energy consumption of their buildings with a number of challenges need to be addressed in terms of the impact of high energy performance on indoor climate conditions. The Energy Performance Buildings Directive (2010/31/EU) requires Member States to consider how high-energy performance affects general indoor climate conditions, in order to avoid possible negative effects such as inadequate ventilation, poor indoor air quality etc. This has particular relevance for nearly zero-energy buildings in which improved air tightness and poor ventilation systems may cause potential air quality and consequently health issues. This report reviewed and analysed existing studies, reports and investigations which have been examining the impact of high energy performance on indoor air quality and provides recommendations on how establishing healthy and energy-efficient buildings in the European Union., JRC.F.2-Consumer Products Safety

Buildings are a key element of European energy policies due to the high energy consumption and estimated potential energy savings that are associated with this sector. The recast of the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD) requires Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (NZEBs) as the building target from 2018 onwards. Member States are required to draw up National Plans towards NZEBs, establishing definitions, intermediate targets, measures and policies to progressively move to NZEBs. This report provides an assessment of the current status towards the implementation of NZEBs in Member States. National Plans and other sources of information have been considered in the analysis with the aim of evaluating the current status of European progress towards NZEBs., JRC.F.7-Renewables and Energy Efficiency

The objective of the JRC PESETA II project is to gain insights into the sectoral and regional patterns of climate change impacts in Europe by the end of this century. The study uses a large set of climate model runs and impact categories (ten impacts: agriculture, energy, river floods, droughts, forest fires, transport infrastructure, coasts, tourism, habitat suitability of forest tree species and human health). The project integrates biophysical direct climate impacts into a macroeconomic economic model, which enables the comparison of the different impacts based on common metrics (household welfare and economic activity). Under the reference simulation the annual total damages would be around €190 billion/year, almost 2% of EU GDP. The geographical distribution of the climate damages is very asymmetric with a clear bias towards the southern European regions. More than half of the overall annual EU damages are estimated to be due to the additional premature mortality (€120 billion). Moving to a 2°C world would reduce annual climate damages by €60 billion, to €120 billion (1.2% of GDP).

The objective of the JRC PESETA II project is to gain insights into the sectoral and regional patterns of climate change impacts in Europe by the end of this century. The study uses a large set of climate model runs and impact categories (ten categories: agriculture, energy, river floods, droughts, forest fires, transport infrastructure, coasts, tourism, habitat suitability of forest tree species and human health). The project integrates biophysical direct climate impacts (from eight of the impact categories) into a macroeconomic economic model, which enables the comparison of the different impacts based on common metrics (household welfare and economic activity). If the 2080s climate would happen today and without public adaptation, the EU household welfare losses would amount to around €190 billion, almost 2% of EU GDP. The geographical distribution of the climate damages is very asymmetric with a clear bias towards the southern European regions. More than half of the overall EU damages are estimated to be due to additional premature mortality (€120 billion). Moving to a 2°C world would reduce climate damages by €60 billion, to €120 billion (1.2% of GDP)., JRC.J.1-Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transport

The projected increase for Europe between the end of the 20th and 21st centuries varies from 2.3 °C to 6 °C, depending on the scenario considered. Climate projections also indicate an increase in incidence of heat waves and extreme events. It is important to understand and quantify the consequences of all these factors in terms of health in the next decades as they are considered some of the key impacts of future climate change. They include both direct impacts, such as temperature-related illness and death, and the impacts of extreme weather events and indirect impacts, as those that cause water- and food-borne diseases. The PESETA II project of the European Commission – Joint Research Centre, started in 2011 aims at assessing these effects for EU 27 both in physical and economic terms, using quantitative modelling and literature review, in several fields (including health) following a bottom-up approach. Long term climatic forecasts (up to 2100) from four different climate models referred to two alternative scenarios (A1B, with high emissions and E1, with low emissions) are used as input in the health model. Age-specific population projections are elaborated from EUROSTAT data. Data and projections are available at NUTS2 level for EU 27. The model assesses the impacts of both heat and heat waves on mortality and morbidity (respiratory diseases, salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis). The model calculates the effects of temperature and temperature-related indicators using exposure-response functions calibrated on the basis of epidemiologic literature. At European level, on average, the climate change-attributable deaths will increase significantly over the next 90 years around 40,000 additional annual deaths in the period between 2010 and 2040 to more than 140,000 in the latest 30 years of the century. Comparing the baseline with climate change scenarios, first model results show that by 2100 the impact in terms of years of life lost for the whole Europe, will be around 12000 M Euros per year but there are sensitive differences among regions. Much lower impacts are found under the E1 scenario and when some level of adaptation is assumed. The effects on food- and water-borne diseases are limited. Climate change is estimated to cause additional 7550 cases of salmonellosis per year if incidence remains at current levels. Alternative health economic evaluations have been proposed to quantify mortality and morbidity impacts., JRC.J.1-Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transport

Industrial policy for the promotion of high-tech sectors is desirable under certain circumstances. In particular this could be the case for health care-related sectors, which are usually characterized by advanced technological content. Furthemore traditional industrial policy objectives applied to health sectors can be useful in the light of a new approach to health care policy. According to Di Tommaso and Schweitzer, traditional health policies, focused only on cost containment, should be replaced by more comprehensive policies, considering health care expenditures not just as a cost, but as an investment that can have remarkable returns in terms of innovation, employment and trade. In this view, health care is considered as a broad industrial sector.

We analyse research collaboration in the Italian biotechnological sector using bibliometric data. We build a database of all scientific publications of Italian biotechnology firms over the period 1990 to may 2006 and we provide evidence on the institutional and geographical nature of research networks, their evolution and their effects on paper's citations impact. The results indicate that the collaboration with foreign institutions and institutional diversity of collaborators is particularly important for the research quality of Italian biotech firms.

Recent thinking about the economics of climate change has concerned the uncertainty about the upper bound of both climate sensitivity to greenhouse gases and the damages that might occur at high temperatures. This argument suggests that the appropriate probability distributions for these factors may be fat-tailed. The matter of tail shape has important implications for the calculation of the social cost of carbon dioxide (SCCO2). In this paper a probabilistic integrated assessment model is adapted to allow for the possibility of a thin, intermediate or fat tail for both (i) the climate sensitivity parameter and (ii) the damage function exponent. Results show that depending on the tail shape of the climate sensitivity parameter the mean SCCO2 rises by 29 to 85 percent. Changes in the mean SCCO2 due to the adjustments to the damage function alone range from a reduction of 7 percent to a rise of 12 percent. The combination of both leads to rises of 33 to 115 percent. Greater rises occur for the upper percentiles of the SCCO2 estimates. Given the uncertainties in both the science and the economics of climate change different tail shapes deserve consideration due to their important implications for the range of possible values for the SCCO2.

Climate Change Policies sheds light on the foundations, design and effects of climate change policies. Written by leading international experts in the field, this book deals with the various economic effects from climate change policies introduced at national and international levels. It also expertly describes actual applications of climate change policies in the main emitting countries. This insightful study includes chapters on public policies and climate change impacts, adaptation, mitigation, effects on competitiveness, new technologies, distributional concerns, and the international dimension.

Biobanks (i.e. the organised collections consisting of biological samples and associated data, have gained great significance for research and personalised medicine) are increasingly recognised as a crucial infrastructure for research. However, at the same time the widely varied practices in biobanking regarding for example collection, storage and consent procedures may also pose a barrier to cross-border research and collaboration by limiting access to samples and data. In this context, a recent study indicates that the limited sharing and linkage of samples is a key barrier for research, such as pharmacogenetics. Wide variation is observed in the implementation of relevant existing regulation, which may add further burden to harnessing the public health benefit of these collections. Therefore, it has been suggested that there is a strong need for a harmonised approach on biobanking practices and improved networking of existing and new collections. This Report shows information on the extent of biobanking in Europe, collected through a survey of existing European biobanks regarding both technical aspects (e.g. storage conditions) and aspects of governance and ethics (e.g. sample and data sharing, consent procedures, collaborations etc.). In total, 126 biobanks from 23 countries in Europe were surveyed. Significant lack of harmonisation has been found, especially in the legal aspects (e.g. data protection, consent). This may be partly attributed to the varied interpretation and implementation of EC directives covering aspects of biobanking by national authorities. One of the main complications is that, although the field of data protection is harmonised through the EC directive on data protection, the collection, storage, and sharing of samples is not. Furthermore, in countries that have introduced special biobanks acts it is not always clear where the borderline lies between the scope of these acts and that of the Directive. Indeed, according to the survey, biobanks within the same country reported different practices, suggesting that the problems of harmonization might be higher than expected and claimed. Not only are there different national laws, but apparently within EU member states biobanks do not implement homogenous practices on privacy and data protection issues. Desk research and expert interviews were done to complete the picture presented by the survey. Experts widely recognised the need to improve collaboration and networking among the numerous existing biobanks, as well as new initiatives in Europe (and world-wide). Efficient organisation of these resources through the development, for example, of an infrastructure would potentially facilitate financial sustainability and greatly contribute to the rapid progress of research and development of better diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. The most favoured model involved the development of a virtual biobank that would allow networking of biobanks across different countries and centralisation of data rather than samples. However, several organisational challenges (wide variation in biospecimen collection, storage techniques, data comparability, etc.) may hamper such an effort. The lack of uniform regulatory and ethical requirements and/or practices may pose an additional barrier. The European Commission has already recognised the importance of international biobank projects and many of them have been funded and established in the context of the EU Framework Programmes. To help promote networking of biobanks and thus maximise public health benefits, at least some degree of harmonisation must be achieved. Whether this should be achieved solely at the level of legal/regulatory requirements and practices and/or by technical standardisation requires further investigation. Experts suggested the establishment of an international (rathen than just a European) umbrella (or network) organization, which would establish common operating procedures., JRC.DDG.J.2-The economics of climate change, energy and transport

Questo articolo aggiorna i risultati di un questionario che è stato oggetto di trattazione dell’articolo “Ricerca industriale di scienziati accademici: una opportunità o un rischio per la open science? Evidenza empirica, considerazioni teoriche ed esiti di un questionario in tre università italiane”, Working paper n.20/2005 del Dipartimento di Economia Istituzioni Territorio dell’Università di Ferrara.. Ai precedenti 80 questionari svolti in tre università si aggiungono i risultati di altri 88 questionari, con le stesse domande più alcune nuove, svolti in altre cinque università.

Does the collaboration between firms and universities or other research organisations improves the quality of research? Why do firms collaborate with public research organisations? The rising importance of university- industry collaboration over the last twenty years makes this question a relevant one. We therefore analyse the relationships between firms and universities using data on firms’ publications in scientific journals. Among all channels through which the relationships between universities and firms are built, joint scientific publications appear to be an important but yet little explored one, especially as regards Italy. We consider the case of the biotechnology sector in Italy. Our aim is to analyse the behaviour of the firms with respect to publications and innovation, in order to shed new insights on the peculiarities of the Italian innovation system and the possible policy implications. For this purpose we built a database of all scientific publications of Italian biotechnology firms over the period 1990 to 2006 and we provide evidence on the institutional and geographic nature of publication networks and on the determinants of research quality. We find that the collaboration with universities and international partners, especially if the research networks are large and varied, increases the research quality. We also begun to collect data on firm size from 1997 to 2006, in order to confront them with the data on publications: our preliminary analysis shows that larger firms have a higher propensity to publish, however small (but not micro) firms publish very high quality papers