Dr Julia Reinaud, Director for Research and Partnerships at i24c, took part in a panel discussion on June 20 titled “Innovation: the Way to a Low Carbon Economy?”

The event, organised by Politico.eu in Brussels, brought together leading policy-makers, energy executives and thought leaders to discuss how the European Union can promote the uptake of low-carbon technologies and solutions in order to both meet its climate objectives and maintain or even reinforce its global industrial leadership for some of these technologies.

Julia Reinaud stressed that policymakers should no longer see innovation  through the narrow lens of technology but should also encompass new business models and integrated solutions enabled by IT developments. Dr Reinaud added that scaling up the deployment of such innovative solutions should be the priority of the European Commission’s forthcoming Energy Union Research, Innovation and Competitiveness Strategy to be published in November, and that cities should be empowered to become the primary locus where such innovations could be made to work together and reach scale.

The other panelists were:

Marie Donnelly, Director, DG Energy, European Commission
Ian Duncan MEP, Rapporteur, ETS reform, ENVI Committee
Fredrick Federley MEP, Rapporteur, ETS reform, ITRE Committee
Tom Jennings, Director, Policy & Markets, Carbon Trust

A summary of the event is available here.