Thomas PELLERIN-CARLIN
EU Programme director – EU Climate Investments, CleantechThomas Pellerin-Carlin joins the Institute for climate economics I4CE in 2022, where he leads the Institute’s EU programme.
He also teaches at Sciences Po in Paris and at the College of Europe Energy Union Training Programme in Bruges.
Before joining I4CE, Thomas worked at the Jacques Delors Institute. He started in 2015 as an EU energy policy research fellow before founding and directing the Jacques Delors Energy Centre (2018-2022). He also worked for the College of Europe, (Belgium, 2013-2015) as Academic Assistant and Research Assistant of its European Energy Policy Chair. Previously he worked for the French Administration (General Secretariat for European Affairs, 2012) and the French Army and its Defence Staff.
Thomas studied political science and holds a MA from the College of Europe’s Master in European Political and Administrative Studies, Bruges (2012-2013, Václav Havel Promotion) and an MA from Sciences-Po Lille (2007-2012, Promotion George Orwell).
Thomas speaks French, English and Italian.
Last contributions
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23/02/2024
Foreword of the week
European climate investments must double to hit 2030 EU targets
This week, I4CE launches the first European Climate Investment Deficit report. During a year’s research, we analysed investments in 22 sectors of the EU27 economy that are critical for the EU to deliver its 2030 climate and energy security objectives. The European Green Deal is gaining economic momentum, as climate investments in the EU grew 9% in 2022, reaching […] -
21/02/2024
Climate Report
European Climate Investment Deficit report: an investment pathway for Europe’s future
Climate investments in the EU economy grew by 9% in 2022. This report finds that the European Green Deal is gaining economic momentum but investments in modernising energy, transport, and buildings must still double for the EU to hit 2030 climate targets. -
13/09/2023
Op-ed
Call for a European Green Industrial Policy
We are coming to the end of this Commission's mandate, time to think about the future of EU climate action. France and Germany called for a EU Green industrial policy last year but since then they have not yet show EU leadership. An EU policy needs to get 3 design elements right: Vision, Funding and Governance. In this OpEd, Stiftung KlimaWirtschaft and I4CE call for France and Germany to come together in leadership and, ahead of the EU elections, call for a European response to the great challenge of the 21st century. -
10/05/2023
Blog post
The Net-Zero Industry Act: Designing Europe’s launchpad for a cleantech investment plan
As the world enters a new era of cleantech competition, policymakers must confront two key policy questions - regulation and investment. The Net Zero Industry Act is Europe’s response to the former. Yet key concerns around permitting, sectoral targets and the scope of the Act will need to be addressed if it is to be effective, argue Thomas Pellerin-Carlin and Ciarán Humphreys in this blog post.
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17/03/2023
Foreword of the week
Net Zero Industry Act: Europe in the race for cleantech
The European Union still has a lot of work to do. Yesterday the European Commission published its Net Zero Industry Act, a piece of its response to the American Inflation Reduction Act, a necessary but still insufficient building block to keep the European Union in global cleantech race. It will also have to complete a number of directives and regulations to deliver its Green Deal. The EU election in 2024 is fast approaching, time is of the essence. -
14/03/2023
Op-ed
Europe needs an investment plan to win the global cleantech race
The adoption by the US of the Inflation Reduction Act gave new life to the global cleantech race. The EU must now learn three lessons from it, writes Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, the EU Programme director at the Institute for Climate Economics – I4CE. As anyone who has marvelled at professional cyclists vying for position knows, the decisions competitors take challenges the strategy of those following close behind. Since August 2022, when the US Congress adopted a public climate investment plan of $400-800 billion as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it’s safe to say the global cleantech race has moved up a gear. -
10/02/2023
Foreword of the week
How the EU can match the US Inflation Reduction-Act
Last August, the US Congress adopted the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). It became the epicentre of EU fears of seeing cleantech projects, like battery or solar panel gigafactories, settling in the US rather than in the EU. There is some rationality behind that fear. The IRA indeed provides sizable public funding, with 10 years predictability and the simplicity of having a single federal level scheme. Moreover, the IRA does not only subsidize cleantech manufacturing. For instance, in the case of electric vehicles, the IRA supports the mining of critical minerals, the manufacturing of the battery, the purchase of the electric car and the production of renewable electricity. In other words, with IRA the US now has a genuine long-term climate investment plan. -
09/02/2023
Climate Brief
Think house, not brick: building an EU Cleantech Investment Plan to match the US Inflation Reduction Act
For years, the European Union assumed it would lead the cleantech race because it was the only one running in it. Mistakenly so. With the Inflation Reduction Act, the US quickly catches up. This brief argues that the best EU policy answer to the IRA is an EU long‑term climate investment plan. As the political appetite for such a plan is currently limited, the European Commission should use the political momentum to propose a targeted investment plan that focuses on the development, scale-up, manufacturing and deployment of clean technologies in the EU. It identifies three first bricks that can already be laid out to build this plan.