For most of United States (US) history, environmental issues enjoyed bipartisan support. While Democratic President Johnson signed the Clean Air Act in 1963, Republican President Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970. America’s “environmental decade”...

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
...Energy and electricity policy, planning and regulation in South Africa has been slow and bureaucratic, lacking visionary leadership, and marred by uncertainty. Policy positions and actions taken have tended to be reactive, and driven more by crisis management than by forward-looking leadership...
China’s economy has rebounded since April 2020 and China is one of the few countries in the world that is expected to avoid a recession in 2020. With low imported gas prices, progress with the gas market liberalization and success in pushing up shale gas production, the window of a golden age...
Affordable and reliable electricity access is a prerequisite for the economic development of sub-Saharan Africa.
This study assesses the prospects of a hydrogen economy with Chinese characteristics. Against the backdrop of an escalating US-China trade war and the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, key Chinese stakeholders become increasingly interested in moving the hydrogen economy agenda...
European buildings are old and too often inefficient, past policies have not delivered and the amount of investment into energy efficiency must be scaled up dramatically to meet the 2030 targets and ultimately, the carbon neutrality objective.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Turkey’s biggest gas discovery ever on August 21, 2020. Initial findings show that the estimated reserve capacity is 320 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas.
Xi Jinping’s announcement of carbon neutrality is impeccably timed, but the hard part lies ahead.
Japan has been steadfastly promoting the development of its hydrogen economy at all levels: political, diplomatic, economic and industrial. It is yet to be seen if this excitement can be turned into a credible, cost-effective and large scale deployment.
The European Union (EU) is committed to reach climate neutrality by 2050. Similarly, Norway aims to create a zero-emission society by that same year.
Energy trends in the Mediterranean region Seminars and Round-table Conferences
Mediterranean countries have to embrace the challenge of balancing the energy needs of their growing populations and economies, with energy security considerations and environmental sustainability commitments, in line with the recent Paris Agreement on climate.
Ukraine's energy sector reforms and its future gas transit role: status and perspectives
Ukraine’s energy sector reforms are progressing yet the Naftogaz restructuring, the future role for gas transit and relations with Gazprom are key challenges.
Ditching Coal in North-Western Europe: Options on the Table Ifri Energy Breakfast Roundtable
Despite the EU’s long-standing commitment to climate action, its energy-related GHG emissions have picked up again in 2017. Renewables keep making inroads in the EU electricity mix but delays in reducing coal-fired generation are undermining the EU’s overall climate policy.
Russia-China relations: What next & else after ESPO, Yamal LNG and Power of Siberia?
Expanding Russia-China energy relations represent one of the most important global energy market developments in the past ten years, and Chinese investments in Russian energy projects and companies have been growing. The strategic dimension of Russia-China relations has gained additional...
The Battery Alliance: can the EU avoid technological dependence? Seminar
The European Union (EU) is speeding up the deployment of electric vehicles and integrating large shares of intermittent renewables into its electricity grids. In doing so, the EU hopes to tackle climate change and air pollution concerns, but it cannot neglect the geo-economic shifts that a...
The Way Forward after the Gazprom-Naftogaz Stockholm Arbitration Awards: the View from Naftogaz
The Gazprom-Naftogaz arbitration procedure totalling around USD 125 billion in mutual claims at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce has finally come to an end following two awards from December 2017 and February 2018. Naftogaz has won a net USD 2.56 billion, the take...
The future routes for the transportation of Russian gas to Europe By personal and non-transferable invitation
Stakes are high given the tensions and uncertainties over the future routes for the transport of Russian gas to Europe: the Nord Stream 2 and Turkstream projects are challenging the role of Ukraine at a time when European gas markets have been undergoing major regulatory changes and when the...
World Energy Outlook 2017 Conference
The Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) and the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) present the World Energy Outlook 2017. The annual World Energy Outlook (WEO) is the International Energy Agency’s flagship publication, used as a reference by both governments and the...
Global gas market trends and the role of gas in the European energy transition Ifri Energy Breakfast Roundtable
There is a sustained global demand growth for gas. Ample production and large investments into LNG export infrastructures in Australia and the USA and into receiving terminals all over the world are boosting trade, supported by lower prices and more flexible supplies....
What perspectives for the French Energy Transition? Conference
The energy sector is responsible for over 60% of global CO2 emissions and the December 2015 Paris Agreement on climate represents a historical step towards reducing carbon emission worldwide. However, commitments undertaken by signatory countries will not only need to be...
Minister Kuo-Yen Wei, the third speaker to our conference on Climate Action beyond COP21, shared his insights on how Taiwan, which is not an official party to the UNFCCC,...
Article published in Nikkei Asian Review
While China may be setting the bar high for itself in it's commitments for the COP21 climate negotiations this December, these ultimately serve to foster necessary progress on environmental issues and economic...
In the run up to the international climate conference (COP 21) which will be held in Paris in December 2015, the Ifri Centre for Energy contributes to the debate on climate change policies and on the way the international negotiations are structured.
In preparation for the IGU World Gas Conference (Paris, 2-5 June 2015), the Ifri Center for Energy and Clingendael International Energy Programme (CIEP) have jointly produced studies for Task Force 3 on Geopolitics and Natural...
OAO Gazprom, the biggest natural gas producer, will probably see lower gains in Europe for at least four years as weaker oil prices and rising competition threaten to further cut its profits, a government forecast showed.
Europe’s largest oil companies are banding together to forge a joint strategy on climate-change policy, alarmed they’ll be ignored as the world works toward a historic deal limiting greenhouse gases.
The Ukrainian crises and changing business conditions in the natural gas markets have taken their toll on the strategic partnership that Europe and Russia laid out in the early 2000s. The European Union is looking to increase its energy security while Moscow continues to...
2015 Ifri Center for Energy Annual Conference, Brussels
"Europe and the New Frontiers of Energy: Turning Grand Strategy into Effective Policy - Proposing Sustainable, Efficient and Field-Relevant Solutions"
Tatiana Mitrova, Head of the Oil & Gas Department at the Energy Research Institute in Moscow, joins Hughes Belin to analyse the consequences of troubled EU-Russia relations for energy trade.
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