The Centre for European Studies (CFE) annually awards a prize for a bachelor’s or master’s thesis written on a European topic at Lund University. The winner of the  the Centre for European Studies (CFE) Best Thesis Award 2019 is LUMES alumni Cristian Pons-Seres de Brauwer, with his master’s thesis Towards a citizen-driven low-carbon energy transition. Exploring the potential for collective investment schemes in community renewable energy in Europe to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The jury’s motivation was as follows:
In his master’s thesis, Cristian Pons-Seres de Brauwer constructs a highly topical problem formulation about individual citizens’ potential participation in local renewable energy projects and the possible positive effects this could have on the EU’s 2030 renewable energy targets. The author thereby sets out with a bold ambition to analyse a future scenario. His refined research design involves several analytical steps and allows him to draw convincing conclusions about the substantial environmental gains of European citizens’ financing of local renewable energy projects. Furthermore, he contrasts his conclusions with the EU’s current energy policy to demonstrate how the policy would need to change in order to unlock this potential. In sum, this thesis is an excellent example of directly policy-relevant research that strives to affect the world for the better.

Cristian Pons-Seres de Brauwer was awarded 10 000 SEK. You can find his thesis here (PDF)

Read an interview with Cristian Pons-Seres de Brauwer at the CFE website