ICTA-UAB Opens ALIA's New Edition on the Energy Transition
ICTA-UAB’s environmental economist Jeroen van den Bergh was in charge of inaugurating the new edition of ALIA, the CCCB's educational program for secondary school students, of which ICTA-UAB is the scientific partner this year. The talk took place on October 8 at the CCCB Auditorium and kicked off a full year of educational activities, which this year focus on the energy transition.
In conversation with Miquel Missé, sociologist and host of the CCCB's dialogues between secondary school students and invited thinkers, Jeroen made the case for why economics belongs in the discussion around climate solutions: "Environmental economics may seem like a contradiction in terms, because many people say economics works against the environment. But precisely because the causes of environmental problems lie in the economy, the solutions have to be there too."
Economists, he argued, bring a necessary angle to environmental policy: understanding how people behave as consumers, how markets and the private sector respond to regulation, and which policies are most effective without damaging wellbeing. "A lot of people want sustainability, but don't want to make sacrifices for it”, and economists, he said, have used mathematical modelling to think through which policies minimize that trade-off. Well-intentioned solutions can have the opposite effect or produce unintended consequences if they aren't grounded in a rigorous understanding of how economies, markets, and human behaviour actually work.
Jeroen was introduced to the students by Emma Parcerisa, from CCCB's mediation team, who presented ICTA-UAB as a centre that brings together researchers from many fields — biology, engineering, political ecology, economics, sociology — to work on shared environmental challenges. That interdisciplinary character, she noted, is also what ALIA is about.
ICTA-UAB’s contribution has been key to shaping the program’s content. In this regard, researcher Raúl Velasco-Fernández has worked closely with the CCCB’s education team and the theatre company Serrucho in developing the educational guide that will support participating schools throughout the academic year. His expertise in the field of energy transition has helped bring current debates on the limits of energy systems, resource extraction, sustainability and environmental justice into the educational setting.
In addition, several ICTA-UAB researchers will participate directly in the program through meetings with students. Cristina Pérez, Marcel Llavero, Arnim Scheidel, Paula Ugarte, Berta Roset and Pablo Núñez will share their research and provide different perspectives on the energy transition.
This edition will involve six secondary schools from the Barcelona metropolitan area: Institut Angeleta Ferrer (Barcelona), Institut Doctor Puigvert (Barcelona), Institut El Martinet (Ripollet), Institut Torrent de les Bruixes (Santa Coloma de Gramenet), Institut La Llauna (Badalona) and Institut Matadepera (Terrassa). All of them will work with the support of the CCCB education team and ICTA-UAB researchers.