Only eight years are left to expand by almost three times the current total installed wind and solar energy capacity in the European Union (EU) in adding around 600 gigawatts (GW), and so reach the highly-ambitious 2030 targets. This requires a mobilization whose scale is immense – amidst...

Energy & Climate

Ifri has celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2019 and is ranked in the top-3 of the world's most influential think-tanks (Upenn Index). Its Center for Energy & Climate combines a unique expertise on energy & climate policies and European and global energy markets, technologies and value chains. In particular, the Center analyses the interplay between geopolitics, geo-economics and energy markets & policies. And how the traditional tensions around fossil fuels evolve and are complemented by new rivalries for other resources, norms, technologies, investments, value chains.
Through its reports, closed-door seminars and open events in Paris and Brussels, the Center for Energy & Climate is conducting forefront and independent research to provide strategic information and analyses to policy-makers, industry stakeholders, academia, media and the wider public. The Center is a leading voice in France and the European Union.
Research areas
- The strategic dimension of the European Union energy transition and drive towards carbon neutrality by 2050; cooperation and coordination among relevant actors; geo-economic rivalries around the deployment of low carbon energy systems; risks and opportunities for public and private stakeholders.
- Shifting power relations and alliances in the global climate governance and implementation of the Paris Agreement; climate change and instability.
- Electricity sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa: scaling up sustainable electricity access, attracting investments and restructuring, and developing low carbon electricity systems.
- The evolving interdependence between and among fossil fuels producers and consumers; the future stability and geopolitical orientation of fossil fuel exporters.
Organisation of the Centre
The governance and financial structure of the Center ensures that our work is fully independent and of the highest quality and relevance. The Center is financed by Ifri partner institutions, organizations and companies as presented in Ifri's activity report.
The Steering Committee gathers representatives from the Center’s partners, the Director of Ifri, and the Director of the Center for Energy & Climate. Meetings of the Steering Committee provide our partners the opportunity to express their views on the general orientation of the Center.
Director of Ifri’s Center for Energy & Climate
...Research Fellow, Center for Energy & Climate
...Coordination Assistant, Ifri's Energy & Climate Centre
Associate Research Fellow, Center for Energy & Climate
...Senior Advisor, Center for Energy & Climate
...Associate Research Fellow, Sub-Saharan Africa Center / Center for Energy and Climate
...Associate Research Fellow, Center for Energy & Climate
...Associate Research Fellow, Center for Energy & Climate
...Senior Advisor, Center for Energy & Climate
Associate Research Fellow, Center for Energy & Climate
...Associate Research Fellow, Center for Energy & Climate
...Associate Research Fellow, Center for Energy & Climate
...The climate and geopolitical crises call for speeding up the implementation of the European Green Deal around two main pillars: reducing energy consumption and investing in low-carbon alternatives. The swift and massive deployment of renewable energies (REN) is a major industrial challenge for...
The success of energy transition is first and foremost a question of good governance, which must be based on expertise and collective deliberation.
Facing Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, European countries have enacted economic and financial sanctions against Russia.
The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is a first step toward reconciling the European Union (EU)’s climate and trade interests. However, a complementary set of domestic and external policies will be needed to drive the decarbonization of European and global energy-intensive industries....
Geoengineering is a catchword for a wide range of techniques, and it is becoming an international issue that will grow in importance as the costs of certain technologies fall or as greenhouse gas emissions continue to decline, making these techniques more attractive.
2.6 billion people globally and 1 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) cook using biomass fuel. The detrimental effects on the environment and public health, as well as the time and money lost are considerable. If nothing new is done, this situation will worsen further in SSA.
The market for decentralized solar systems first developed in rural Africa, and today it is expanding to the continent’s cities, though these areas are already covered by each country’s central network.
On its path to carbon neutrality, the European Union (EU) will be exposed to growing energy price volatility and vulnerable to Russian and Chinese pressure on supply and demand.
The European Union (EU) is the world’s main trader in agricultural products, with imports totaling €142 billion in 2020. These imported agricultural products include commodities – palm oil, beef, cocoa, coffee, soy, etc. – that are responsible for deforestation in producing countries and...
China’s New Five Year Plan : Economic and Energy Sector Implications Ifri Closed Videoconference
President Xi has surprised both the world and Chinese stakeholders in announcing the carbon neutrality objective by 2060. Yet the first announcements on China’s new Five Year Plan give little hope for a substantial policy adjustment in order to peak greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years...
The Development of Healthy Cities In Sub-Saharan Africa: Stepping Up Clean Electricity Uses Webinar organized in partnership between Columbia - Global Centers Nairobi, SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) and Ifri’s Center for Energy & Climate
Affordable and reliable electricity access from renewable energy sources is a prerequisite for the development of sustainable and healthy cities in sub-Saharan Africa.
Electricity Decarbonization, Diversification and Security of Supply: How to Meet the 2030 Challenge in North-West Continental Europe? Ifri Green Deal Virtual Lunch Series
Electricity systems of the North-West area of continental Europe will go through fundamental changes in the coming years. Decarbonization and diversification strategies adopted in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands will lead to a swift phase out of large amounts of dispatchable coal...
Italy’s Green Recovery Strategy and the European Climate Agenda Ifri Green Deal Virtual Lunch Series
Italy is firmly committed to decarbonizing its economy, with policy measures including phasing out coal by 2025, encouraging home renovations with generous tax breaks and expanding the use of renewables in the electricity, heating, and transport sectors.
South Africa's Energy Policies at a Turning Point Ifri Closed Seminar
South Africa benefits from a successful renewable energy program and a certain status as the only nuclear power plant operator on the African continent. These assets have been increasingly overshadowed by structural and mounting challenges affecting the energy sector and entire economy: load...
US Energy & Climate Policies under the Biden Administration: Assessing the Internal and External Dimensions Ifri Closed Seminar
President Trump has broken but not terminated the global climate governance. President-elect Biden aims to reintegrate the Paris Agreement and engage the US into a major energy transformation.
LNG and Gas-to-Power in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges Ifri’s webinar series on Sub-Saharan power sectors
With the recent discoveries of large gas resources in Sub-Saharan Africa, cheap renewable energy sources, loose LNG markets with competitive prices, there is a unique momentum to accelerate the electrification of the continent with gas/LNG to power, solar and hydro as backbones.
How to Leverage the North Sea’s Offshore Wind Potential? Ifri Green Deal Virtual Lunch Series
For Europe to reach climate neutrality by 2050, the European Commission (EC) expects offshore wind capacity to go from 23 GW today to up to 450 GW, with half of this capacity to be installed in the North Sea, the pioneer region with still large untapped wind resources.
China's energy and climate policies post COVID-19 Closed seminar
China is in the spotlight: clearances for new coal fired power plants have multiplied and the country aims to foster electrification of end-uses.
The EU Strategy for Energy System Integration: what next? Ifri Green Deal Virtual Lunch Series
Faced with an unprecedented environmental, sanitary and economic crisis, the European Union is determined to turn the challenges into an opportunity: adopting the 750 billion EUR European recovery plan and making the Green Deal centre stage.
The price of CO2 credits on Europe’s emissions trading scheme needs to rise to around €50 per tonne in order to drive the long-term development of Europe’s biomethane industry, says Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, a French researcher.
The prospects for biogas in Europe look bright, with conservative estimates pointing to a tenfold increase in production by 2030. However, the industry will need to stay rooted in the local economy and come clean on environmental credentials if it wants to avoid a green backlash, analysts say....
Energy has been at the heart of Ukraine's troubles with Russia over the past two decades, typically as a means for Moscow to pressure its former province. The pressure points have changed over the years – moving from a focus on direct supplies to transit through Ukraine – but the battle...
Energy has been at the heart of Ukraine's troubles with Russia over the past two decades, typically as a means for Moscow to pressure its former province. The pressure points have changed over the years – moving from a focus on direct supplies to transit through Ukraine – but the battle...
China believes its near-monopoly gives it leverage over the US but supply cuts would spur rival producers.
Over and again, legislators worldwide are confronting the same question: which technologies do we subsidise and support, when, by how much, and for how long. Get it right and those costs will reduce and should disappear once scale is reached. Solar and wind are on their way to proving...
Carole Mathieu of the French Institute of International Relations explains some of the developments between the EU battery manufacturing and automaker industries and how they impact on the region's contributions towards the global energy storage market.
The Think Thank 7 (T7) is an engagement group that brings together the leading Think Tanks from the G7 countries in order to analyze and make recommendations on key issues of the G7 presidency.
Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, director of Ifri’s Centre for Energy, discusses various issues related to the energy market, from the strategic move of Russia towards Saudi...
Total SA boss Patrick Pouyanne proved once again that he’ll go where other business leaders fear to tread. The storm in Saudi Arabia caused by the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was too much for the chief executive officers of Siemens AG and BlackRock Inc., who pulled out of...
2022
- Feedback from the Ifri Center for Energy & Climate on the EC initiative on "Production of renewable transport fuels – share of renewable electricity (requirements)", 13 June 2022
2021
- Ifri Center for Energy & Climate Activity report 2021:
Rapport d’activité 2021 Centre Énergie & Climat
- Center for Energy and Climate, 18 October 2021:
- Hugo Le Picard, Center for Energy & Climate, 30 September 2021:
- Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega and Juliette Blais, Center for Energy and Climate, 6 September 2021:
Low carbon technologies and critical metals: Revisiting the criticality and implications for scaling up the deployment of low carbon technologies
- Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega and Juliette Blais, Center for Energy and Climate, 6 September 2021:
David against Goliath: The European Union facing the issue of critical minerals and metals
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Ifri Energy Transition Scorecard 2021 focusing on the European Union, China, the United States and Japan, Center for Energy & Climate, April 2021
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Italy’s Energy and Climate Policies in the Post COVID-19 Recovery, Briefing Memo by Massimo Lombardini, February 2021
2020
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2020 Activity Report of the Center for Energy & Climate: publications, conferences and outreach (in French).
- Assessment of Renewable Investments in Europe by Leading Companies & Perspectives to 2025 by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Carole Mathieu and Thibault Menu, Ifri Center for Energy & Climate, 9 December 2020
- Analysis of the key issues that will make or break the Green Deal's energy and industrial aspects, by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of the Center for Energy & Climate, Ifri, 19 may 2020: The Twelve Labours of the European Green Deal
- Overview and assessment of policy measures taken in several G7, EU, G20 and regional economies and their climate impacts, two months after the start of the global lockdowns, by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Hugo Le Picard and Eloïse Couffon, 5 May 2020: “Green” or “Brown” Recovery Strategies? A preliminary assessment of policy trends in a selection of countries worldwide
2019
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, 2nd German-Danish Roundtable on Energy Transition, Copenhaguen, 24 September 2019: The perspectives for biomethane in the EU
- Dialogue with Naftogaz CEO Kobolyev on gas negociations and Naftogaz restructuring, Brussels, 20 September 2019.
Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director, Ifri Center for Energy and Andriy Kobolyev, CEO, Naftogaz
- Hearing of Carole Mathieu, Head of EU Energy & Climate Policies of the Ifri Center for Energy, National Assembly, 25 July 2019, Paris : Commission of inquiery Impacts of the Energy Transition (video)
- Fruitful conversation with Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources Tarek El Molla about Egypt's impressive energy sector reforms and positioning as a regional gas hub, Ifri, 12 June, Paris.
Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Tarek El Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Egypt, Thomas Gomart, Director of Ifri
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy and Carole Mathieu, Head of EU Energy & Climate Policies of the Ifri Center for Energy, Plateforme française de l'automobile, 11 June 2019, Paris: "The European industry of batteries"
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Russian Gas Society, 16 May 2019, Berlin: The role of gas in the European energy transition: risks and opportunities
- Presentation by Carole Mathieu, Head of EU Energy & Climate Policies of the Ifri Center for Energy, Bruegel Institute,15 May 2019, Brussels : The French Energy & Climate Strategy and the Future Role of Nuclear Electricity
- G7 Environment Ministerial, 5-6 May 2019, Metz. Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy: Scaling up environment protection, energy transition & climate action: vision and actions for a G7 leadership
- Presentation by Sylvie Cornot-Gandolphe, Associate Research Fellow, Ifri Center for Energy, Energetika workshop on the future of gas, 24 April 2019, Berlin: Decarbonization of the French energy mix and the role of gas
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Trilateral forum, Council of Europe, 25 March 2019, Strasburg: Global and regional energy security revisited: old trends, new paradigms
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Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Workshop for Algerian delegation on future gas demand in the EU, European Commission, DG ENER, 19 March 2019, Brussels : EU gas demand perspectives by 2030
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Convention de l'Association française du gaz, 12 March 2019, Neuilly-sur-Seine : The Future of Gas in the EU
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Valdai Middle East Conference, 19 February 2019, Moscow : The Future of OPEC
2018
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Ifri-OCP Roundtable, 9 November 2018, Rabat : Sub-Saharan Africa’s electricity challenges and opportunities
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in France, 22 October 2018, Paris : La transition énergétique : la voie de la mise en œuvre de l’accord de Paris
- Press release by Moroccan press agency MAP Express, 8 November 2018: Débats d’experts à Rabat sur les opportunités durables pour l’Afrique en matière d’énergies renouvelables
- Presentation by Carole Mathieu, Head of EU Energy & Climate Policies, Center for Energy, 26 September 2018, New Delhi: The EU Energy Transition: Progress, Perspectives and Global Implications
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, 11 June 2018, Oslo: Sub-Saharan Africa’s electricity challenges and opportunities
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Energy Club - Rueil, 20 April 2018, Paris: The prospects for nuclear power in Saudi Arabia
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Eni, 18 April 2018, Brussels: The impacts of Western restrictive measures on Russia's oil and gas sectors
2017
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Energetika XXI, 8-10 November 2017, St Petersburg: Ukraine's future role for gas transit
- Presentation by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, Director of Ifri Center for Energy, Ukrainian Gas Forum, 11-12 October 2017, Kiev: Ukraine and the great game of pipelines: the ball is in Ukraine's court
- Presentation by Sylvie Cornot-Gandolphe, Associate Research Fellow, Ifri Center for Energy, OIES 12th Annual Gas Day, 12 October 2017, Oxford: Can Gas displace Coal in Europe and Asia, and if so what?
- Presentation by Michel Cruciani, Associate Research Fellow, Ifri Center for Energy, 12 September 2017, Ifri Paris: Managining the energy transition in an age of innovation