Highly prestigious researchers, including Stef Proost (University of Leuven), David Banister (Oxford University) and Xavier Labandeira (University of Vigo) will participate at the III Workshop on Transport Economics on 27 May, organized by the IEB and Fedea-Abertis Chair. The workshop is dedicated to conducting an economic analysis of the effects of transport on the environment and proposing better policies to reduce their impact, with particular attention to the aviation sector. It is worth recalling that a third of energy consumption and more than a fifth of the emissions of greenhouse gases are attributable to transport.
Internationally renowned experts
The workshop participants are to include:
Stef Proost : Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven and leader of a research group examining the environment, energy and transport at the Centre for Economic Studies. He has worked as an assessor to the EU, the OECD and several governments and firms advising on issues such as investment in transportation, environmental policies and energy prices. In his presentation (10:00), he will analyze the challenges to the energy sector and the environment posed by road transport and the instruments available for addressing problems of air pollution, energy supply, and climate change, etc.
Xavier Labandeira: Professor of Public and Environmental Economics at the University of Vigo and director of Economics for Energy, a research centre specializing in the economic analysis of energy issues. He also sits on the panel of experts working on the forthcoming UN report on Climate Change. Labandeira will participate in the session on the challenges to the energy sector and the environment posed by transport.
David Banister : Professor of Transportation Studies at the School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE). He is editor of the journal Transport Reviews and has been an advisor to the UN and the European Environment Agency, among others. In his presentation, (11:45), he will analyze different policies to curb the environmental impact of the exponential growth in world transport.
Emilio Padilla: is Professor of Applied Economics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and an expert in environmental economics. His research centres on the analysis of the relationship between economic growth and structure and environmental pressures, and the analysis of public policies to reduce the problem of climate change and distributional aspects of climate change.
Gustavo Nombela: is Professor of Applied Economics at the Complutense University of Madrid. He has worked for the World Bank and in the Spanish President’s Economics Office. He has also collaborated with Fedea directing the Chair in the Economics of Infrastructures until 2010, and with the Fundación Ideas. His research interests focus on the analysis of concession contracts, regulation and the evaluation of infrastructure projects.
Aviation and emissions
The second part of the workshop will be dedicated to air transport. At 14:00, Professor Pilar Socorro (ULPGC) will analyze the implications of including air transport in the emissions trading system and its impacts on market competition. At 15:15, a round table will discuss the possible inclusion of airlines in Europe’s emissions trading system, a decision that the EU partially suspended in 2012 pending a global agreement within the ICAO. The roundtable will comprise Ignacio Sánchez García (Spanish Office for Climate Change), Jaume Beneded (Vueling), Jasper Faber (CE Delft, an aviation emissions consultants), and Ishmael Romeo (Sendeco2, a platform for trading in emission permits specializing in SMEs).
