Cristina Penasco

Cristina Peñasco is a Spanish economist whose research focuses on climate and energy economics, innovation policy, and policy evaluation. She is a senior research economist at the Banque de France, an affiliated researcher at Sciences Po and the Bennett School for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, a member of the Scientific Council of the Elcano Royal Institute, and an associate editor of Climate Policy.

Education Peñasco holds a PhD in economics from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Rey Juan Carlos University. She also holds an MPhil in research in economics and business from ICADE Business School in Spain.

Peñasco is a member of the Scientific Council of the Elcano Royal Institute. She is also an associate editor of Climate Policy, a world-class peer-reviewed academic journal publishing research and analysis on climate policy.

Public commentary and media A 2021 profile in Lanza Digital described Peñasco's academic trajectory and research on sustainable economics and climate change at the University of Cambridge.

During COP26, she was interviewed in El Periódico in an article by Valentina Raffio on the first week of the Glasgow climate summit.

She also appeared on The Debate on France 24 on 3 November 2025 in a discussion on climate resilience and rising temperatures.

In 2024, she co-authored a Le Monde opinion piece on COP29 and green growth in France with Tanya Filer.

Awards and recognition In 2021, Peñasco received the Regional Studies, Regional Science Best Referee Award from the Regional Studies Association. In the same year, she received an Energy SSH Innovation Award for policy and practice engagement related to the Decarbonisation Policy Evaluation Tool (DPET).