EU energy and climate policy, down to the fine print
FSR is the Florence School of Regulation's podcast, carrying numbered FSR Policy Briefcase conversations alongside CAPABLE, a Horizon Europe-funded series on climate policy acceptability. Topics run from regulator independence and network tariffs to pricing agricultural emissions and COP30, handled with technical care and a streak of banter.
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FSR is the podcast feed of the Florence School of Regulation, and it takes on European energy and climate policy from inside a research institution. The mix of formats stands out first. Numbered FSR Policy Briefcase episodes sit beside CAPABLE, a project series funded by the EU's Horizon Europe programme, and beside a separate conversation about COP30 in Belém. The Policy Briefcase is the looser of the formats. Presenters including Leonardo, James and Emma Menegati bring in a guest and talk with them rather than at them, and the openings wander: a debate over printed meat versus a pizza made of insects, an attempt at a sentence in Finnish, an old story about a French liquor Germany did not want sold in its market. Then the policy arrives, and it is specific. With Kaisa Huhta, a professor at the school and at the University of Eastern Finland, the talk covers a regulator's move from volumetric to peak network tariffs, and a Finnish case in which companies went to court over the regulator's independence under an eight-year regulatory period. With Fabio Santeramo, the question is why putting a price on food and farming is harder than pricing industry and energy. A presenter compares an agricultural emissions trading system without cattle to an energy scheme that skips coal. It is a pointed analogy, and a useful one. In '#8 Brussels Exclusive - One Year On: From the Draghi Report to von der Leyen’s Union', the two presenters weigh joint gas purchasing and argue that Europe's electricity markets are more integrated than the state-level markets of the United States. They also make a point of noting what Europe already does well, a counterweight to conference-room gloom. CAPABLE sits in a different register. It is a research project discussing its own work on climate policy acceptability, with Simone Borghesi, director of FSR Climate, and Ilaria Di Battista each taking a turn as interviewer. One thread is the gap between plans and delivery. Research associates describe strong plans on paper undercut by capacity constraints and fragmented governance, and regions under the just transition mechanism facing uneven coordination, resources and stakeholder dialogue. Another thread is evidence itself. Gabi Umbach, of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute, separates the best available evidence from good evidence for policymaking. That episode closes on the idea that research must be usable, not merely sound, before it drives decisions. The COP30 episode widens the lens again. Simone Borghesi appears there as a guest alongside Andries, and the discussion covers the shift from pledges to implementation, targets to triple renewable capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030, a roadmap away from fossil fuels and Brazil's forest conservation initiative. One guest's verdict is measured: no real breakthrough, but a decent continuation of work started at earlier COPs. Across all of it, a listener gets the reasoning behind EU energy and climate decisions from people close to the research, with enough humour in the room that regulation seldom turns dry.
Made for: Suits a listener who follows European energy and climate policy and wants the reasoning under the headlines: how network tariffs are set, what an emissions trading system leaves out, and why well-drafted plans stall in delivery.
What sets it apart: It stays at the level of mechanism, such as regulatory periods, tariff structures and which sectors carbon pricing covers, and the Florence School of Regulation's own researchers are among those explaining it. The presenters are relaxed enough to open on insect pizza.
Podcast by Florence School of Regulation
The printed-meat joke is fun; you're here for the problem of measuring livestock emissions.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Fabio Santeramo shows why measuring agricultural emissions can be harder than setting the policy ambition.
Agricultural policy grows difficult where environmental ambition meets the uneven reality of farms, livestock, and the Common Agricultural Policy.
A grounded look at climate evidence as multidisciplinary, time-bound, and useful only when shaped for policy.
Climate policy can sound simple when evidence is treated as something that travels cleanly into decision-making. Gabi Umbach pushes at the messier part: how knowledge, data, and evidence become clear, relevant, applicable, and usable for policy.
A measured check-in on Draghi's competitiveness agenda, the Commission, and Europe's energy leverage.
FSR Policy Briefcase checks in on the Commission nearly a year in, using Draghi's competitiveness report as the measure for how far ambition has turned into delivery.
Market structure, explained from close range.
Discussion on determinants of EU and Chinese carbon prices with lead carbon analyst Yan Qin.
This episode discusses a policy brief on tendering railway public service obligation contracts, with a focus on transport regulation and jargon clarification.
FSR Policy Briefcase turns to sustainable agriculture, EU trade, and climate policy with Fabio Santeramo, an agricultural scientist who studied in Italy, Iowa, Duke, and North Carolina before moving into economics at the University of Foggia, the EUI, and FSR.
Simone Borghesi explains why carbon pricing needs international cooperation, redistribution, and a mix of policies.
Kaisa Huhta explains how Finnish network operators used regulator independence to challenge tariff methodologies before the European Court of Justice.
Gabi Umbach argues that climate policy depends on institutionalized science advice, from the UN's IPCC to the EU's climate advisory board.
FSR Policy Briefcase #8 revisits the first year of Ursula von der Leyen's Commission and the first year after Mario Draghi's competitiveness report, with James Kneebone and Leonardo Meus framing Brussels' response.
Meera Tiwari of the Robert Schuman Centre argues that EU ESG rules such as the CSRD risk a "boom and bust" pattern, in which investors withdraw from Global South suppliers that cannot meet value-chain reporting demands.
Keith Smith argues that policymakers need to listen to public views, not just communicate the benefits of climate policies.
FSR hosts Leonardo Menz and James Neva interview Simone Borghesi, Florence School of Regulation climate-area director, about international carbon markets.
Hosts recap past episodes and discuss the new European Commission president's political guidelines and policy agenda.
Discussion on determinants of EU and Chinese carbon prices with lead carbon analyst Yan Qin.