Prof. Phoebe Koundouri was elected President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE)

It is with great pleasure that I forward you the results of the elections for the presidency of the  European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE), where Prof. Phoebe Koundouri was elected President. Results

EAERE is the oldest, largest and most prestigious Scientific Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. Founded in 1990, EAERE has more than 1200 members in over 60 countries from Europe and beyond, from academic and research institutions, international organisations, the public sector, and the business world. Membership is open to individuals who by their profession, training and/or function are involved in environmental, climate and resource economics as a science, and to institutions operating in fields connected with the aims of the Association.

Each summer, EAERE organises its Annual Conference, an invaluable opportunity for meeting, exchanging and debating current topics in environmental, climate and resource economics. With approximately 800 individual participants attending from all over the world, international researchers, scholars, economists and students convene to the EAERE Annual Conferences in the spirit of economic discovery, research, analysis and collaboration. Conferences are held in European countries and unite European participants together with their national and international neighbours. Every four years since 1998, EAERE’s Annual Conference is held within the World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists, an international event organised together with the American Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and the East Asian Association of Environmental and Resource Economics (EAAERE) and EAERE.

EAERE Elections 2019 - Results

For the position of President-Elect, the candidates were Phoebe Koundouri and Matti Liski. Phoebe Koundouri was elected with 53.51% of votes. Her two-year presidential term will begin in January 2022. She will serve as President-Elect in 2020 and 2021 and for other two years as Past-President, at the end of the presidential term.

Below Prof. Phoebe Koundouri's presidential candidate note.

Dear EAERE Members,

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.
 
Phoebe.