It is with great sadness that we received the news that our colleague and friend Jørgen Henningsen has passed away.
Hans Martens, former Chief Executive of the European Policy Centre and current Senior Adviser on Health: "I had the pleasure of bringing him to the EPC many years ago as Senior Advisor on Energy and the Environment. With his knowledge about the environment, climate change and European climate policies from his career in the European Commission, he was a valuable team member of the EPC. Besides that, Jørgen was a lovely person with a great sense of (dry) humour, and we are grateful for what he has done for the EPC."
Over the years, he contributed significantly to the EPC's work, writing regularly on the EU's
climate and
energy policies, including the
EU ETS. He continued to follow EU developments closely. As recent as May 2021, he wrote a letter to the Financial Times (FT) to argue that '
EU rules on burning biomass for energy must be tightened'. Before joining the EPC, he had a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors. He served as the Director of DG Environment at the European Commission and was a Principal Adviser at DG Energy and Transport. He was also a Fellow at the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs at Harvard University in 2004-2005.