Bruegel

This award recognises a Brussels-based think tank that has shaped the intellectual architecture of European climate policy throughout 2025. On 20 November 2025, Bruegel co‑organised a high‑level hybrid event at the COP30 Science Pavilion, presenting the CEPR‑Bruegel Paris Report 3 on flexible, incentive‑aligned governance structures for international decarbonisation. The same year, its researchers published a major CBAM analysis warning that applying the carbon border adjustment to electricity from January 2026 could undermine market integration and security of supply, a Working Paper measuring GDP‑at‑risk during the low‑carbon transition, and a Policy Brief detailing how EU member states can best deploy the Social Climate Fund to manage the ETS2 rollout without harming vulnerable households.

Beyond individual publications, Bruegel has become the most consistently influential academic voice in EU policy circles. Its 2025‑2026 research programme focuses on green industrialisation for European competitiveness, the design of the next Multiannual Financial Framework, the development of functioning international carbon markets, and the political economy of the European Green Deal. By placing rigorous, independent analysis directly into the hands of EU decision‑makers at every stage of the legislative process – from the Fit‑for‑55 package to the Clean Industrial Deal – Bruegel has turned academic research into a practical engine of the European decarbonisation agenda. For this enduring contribution to climate economics and policy, Bruegel receives this recognition.