LEAD Board member Roland Kupers has co-authored a report entitled 'A New Growth Path for Europe Generating Prosperity and Jobs in the Low-Carbon Economy'. The paper which was recently presented by the German Secretary of State for the Environment to the European Commission, is based on a comprehensive assessment of European growth prospects in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

The publication of this paper is timely as the European Union is deciding this year on whether to raise its targets for greenhouse-gas reduction. The paper argues that the main outcomes of an increase of the reduction target from 20% to 30% emissions by 2020 could create up to 6 million new jobs in Europe, up to €840 billion additional GDP and reinvigoration of the European project.

On the significance of the paper Mr. Kupers stated "It was a real thrill to work on this. I think the ideas are worth taking in. Both the outcome and the approach are new. We have taken a complexity approach to the economy, expanding the existing models to represent some of the interactions and learning cascades that occur in times of change. All well established insights but put together in a new way."

The report summary is available to download here

Roland Kupers is a Visiting Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University, Associate Professor, Master of Public Affairs, Sciences Po, Paris, France and Guest Researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He joined the board of LEAD International in September 2010.

Photo credit: Stuart Chalmers

Release date: Tuesday, February 22, 2011