The purpose of this study was to show that climate policy can have a positive effect if certain mechanisms are taken into consideration in economic evaluations, and to trigger a debate on opportunities posed by climate policy. Although European Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions only make up 10% of global emissions, it would be an important signal for international climate negotiations in December 2015 in Paris if Europe could show that a new growth path is possible, In order to address this issue, four challenges are relevant and need to be analysed: The climate challenge and the economic challenge, as well as the subsequent modelling challenge for the analysis and the policy challenge for the implementation of a solution for both challenges.

The scenarios that were quantified with the GEM-E3 model mainly involved the study of the adjustment of the economic and energy systems (power generation mix, transport fleet mix, energy efficiency in firms and households) due to a GHG emission reduction constraint.