To my colleagues and fellow scientists around the world:
To my colleagues and fellow scientists around the world: I was nominated by the Council of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) to be one of the two candidates running for EAERE Presidency! I enthusiastically accepted the honor! EAERE has members in 60 countries. Elections will be carried out early June 2019. https://www.eaere.org/elections-2019/ Below my note to the members of EAERE. In October 2018 the IPCC special report on “Global Warming of 1.5 ºC” warned that there are only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which, even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people around the globe. Urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target. EAERE should and must play a central role in the needed sustainability transition! I believe that EAERE members research outputs and policy initiatives can have an instrumental role in creating a prosperous, inclusive, climate-resilient society with a circular, zero-carbon economy. Why? Well, EAERE not only boasts members which include the majority of the most influential scientists in the field, but it also organizes the most prestigious annual international conference in the field, bringing together in fruitful discussion hundreds of research and policy institutions. In addition, its official journals, ERE and REEP, shape a significant part of the relevant research agenda. Moreover, EAERE has strong research and policy related dissemination impact in more than 30 countries, via national representatives, while it works on re-enforcing its policy role, through the newly developed “Policy Outreach Committee”. I am truly and deeply honored to be nominated for EAERE presidency, and I sincerely thank the nominating committee and the council for their trust. If I am elected, I believe I can contribute to continuing and advancing the already excellent work carried out by our association. Let me first quickly say that I am currently ERE co-editor and REEP associate-editor, have served as EAERE vice-president for 2 years and council member for 4 years, EAERE newsletter editor for 4 years, president of the EAERE fellow-nomination committee, member of president-nomination committee, member of the policy outreach committee, member of the annual conference scientific committee and country representative for more than 15 years, and was the chair of both the scientific and local organizing committees of the 2017 EAERE conference. The last 20 years, the association has been my academic home! If I am elected, I will do my best to serve the association along the following 4 directions, by formulating respective consultation groups composed by EAERE members and key members from corresponding communities, as well as devoting lots of energy to leveraging the needed grants smartly and efficiently. 1. I will encourage EAERE to continue to seek to meet the highest expectations of scientific merit, in a way that will increase its visibility and influence amongst the relevant associations on other continents, as well as in the general economics profession. This can be achieved through inter-association merit-based awards, fellowships and joint academic events/projects/special issues etc., which can be stimulated via capitalizing on our members’ academic networks, while mobilizing grants from selected funding organizations, which will support these activities. Such visibility will also help in attracting international sponsorships earmarked for lowering the participation fee for our annual conference. 2. I will encourage EAERE to embrace more explicitly interdisciplinary scientific work. Almost all applied problems are interdisciplinary, hence scientific solutions need to be interdisciplinary and support socio-economic and environmental sustainability. That said, interdisciplinary work is difficult and expensive. Given my 20 years of experience and passion for interdisciplinary work, I can bring the association closer to the relevant academic community and funding sources. Given my 20 years of collaboration with DG Research and Innovation, I will invest time in increasing the influence of the association in formulating the priorities of research and innovation policy at the European Commission. 3. I will put a lot of effort in bringing our academic community closer to the innovation community that catalyzes and nurtures innovation, from large corporations, research institutes and public bodies, through to start-ups and individual entrepreneurs. Technological and social innovations ought to integrate our scientific results, while their acceleration in the market should be supported by our expertise in market, financial and economic sustainability. Such a strategy will encourage fresh new thinking from beyond the mainstream and I drive work towards achieving this aim in my capacity as Director of EIT Climate KIC Greece (and member of EIT Climate KIC Europe, www.climate-kic.org). 4. I will continue to reinforce EAERE’s role in being an influential bridge between the academic community and the other stakeholders that are instrumental in the implementation of the sustainability transition: politicians, policy makers, businesses and the civil society. My role as co-chair of UN SDSN Greece (and member of UN SDSN Global, unsdsn.org, unsdsn.gr) places me in a unique position to facilitate this work. I believe that the above strategy will enhance EAERE’s role in the urgently needed sustainability transition. Looking forward to seeing you all in Manchester! Phoebe. Climate-KIC | The EU’s main climate innovation initiative https://www.climate-kic.org