The Stati Generali sulla Green Economy (General States of the Green Economy) #statigreen24 gathere at Fiera di Rimini on the 5th and the 6th November 2024 more than 1,500 participants involving 100 speakers within Ecomondo 2024, one of the greaest hubs of sustainainable innovation, technology and industrial solutions to support circular economy.
Edo Ronchi, President of the Fondazione per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile (Sustainable Development Foundation) highlighted: « Also this year the event boosted attendance showing that the business is interested in green deal. The focus on these issues has increased as a result of the growing concern about climate disasters, which calls for an acceleration of measures to end a situation of climatic schizophrenia, This is a mismatch between what happens and the commitment of climate policies ».
The technical panel unveiled the Annual Report bearing eight priorities proposals to foster the ecological transition through more ambitious targets as for: renewables, green buildings and electric vehicles. A greater involvement of the entrepreneurial sector was considered crucial by most speakers. In particular, more investments and resources are essential to drive the Green Deal, thus carbon neutrality by 2050, including the implelmentation of the European common debt. According to the most recent Draghi Report, Europe will need 750/800 billion euros per year to complete the ecological, digital and security transition. Therefore, there will be a need to federate more private and public investments, taking care not to make European companies less competitive, forced to buy technologies from leading foreign markets to comply with new regulations. Small and medium-sized enterprises, in fact, are unable to cover all the costs, risking failure. And from the consumer perspective, awareness of green issues is unfortunately falling worlwide, being less open to pay more for sustainable products or services (source: Climate fatigue, Allianz Climate Literacy Survey - 2023).
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Over the next ten years, the natural environment will be a key issue at economic, social and business level. Worldwide, we are witnessing a great technological development closely interconnected with geopolitics. Not by chance, most of the Planet Earth's rare earths, which is essential for high-tech, are not present in the Western World.
The Energy Transition is then considered by many as the greatest challenge that human beings have ever faced, but United States and China are still the two main actors at global level while Europe fails to impose its role. As reaffrimed by Carlo Cici, Partner of The European House Ambrosetti, Sustainable Development remains an economic issue: "Being non-sustainable is a luxury we cannot afford". The economist pointed out that we are in danger of spending a trillion euros a year by the end of the century just to pay for climate change damage, compared with the current 50 million euro per year (source: EEA European climate risk assessment 2024). Thus, the European Union is willing to standardise the measurement of sustainability in any company, process or product, encouranging financial mechanisms to push the business sector to embrace sustainabile goals.
The General States of the Green Economy was also an opportunity to draw up the state of the art of Sustainability Policies at a gepolitical level.
The European Union has been developing for some time the Green Deal regulatory measures and tools. In 2023, EU succeeded in cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 31% compared to 1990, carrying on the decarbonisation process, after a brief pause in 2022. Consequently, greenhouse gas emissions have decreased by almost 200 million tonnes in Europe, between 2022 and 2023. Continuing in this way, the EU will be in line with the target of - 55% by 2030 in view of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050, according to the European Climate Law.
China is the most polluting country reaching +39% of CO2 emissions, worsened by the use of coal. However, the Country is directly engaged in energy transition, investing more and more in clean technologies in order to counterbalance climate crisis on the vast Chinese territory, as a consequence of China’s technological and production capacities, In 2022, China sold 60% of the world’s electric car population, 50% of world's wind farm population and 45% of global solar photovoltaic plants.
United States is the world’s second most polluting country (and the first per capita). Biden administration, just completed, has reduced emissions by 145% in 2022, fostering government support to promote stronger and faster greenhouse gas emission reductions with the aim to achieve 100% green electricity by 2035. Major cities and states are therefore moving in this direction: New York has planned to ban fossil fuels in all new buildings by 2027, while California has required new buildings to be mainly powered by electric devices, and the State of Washington is promoting heat pumps in new buildings.
India's pollutant emissions percentage corresponds to the amount produced by the European Union, but compared to a population three times larger. So, per capita emissions are still low, less than half of the world average and about one quarter of those of China. Nevertheless, India is the most populated continent and one of the most affected ones by climate crisis, facing extreme weather more often. At COP26 in Glasgow, the Indian Government announced its intention to become a net zero country by 2070. To achieve this ambitious target, Indian has been implementing policies to increase renewable energy production and develop low-carbon technologies, with the aim to double investments in clean energy by 2030, compared to the approximately 60 billion dollars of 2022. ***
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By Maurice Abbati
Journalist; Editor; Communication, Media and Public Relations Specialist
Lecturer and Author in English language of Technical Articles and the Manual: "Communicating the Environment to Save the Planet, a Journey into Eco-Communication"Â by Springer International Publishing.
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