The Recovery Fund and Italian projects to accompany the route to Green Economy. A package of proposals will arrive from the States General of the Green Economy which are opening the all-digital edition of Ecomondo 2020: two weeks of meetings between the sustainable economy’s supply and demand. A calendar of approximately 120 online events for enterprises and decision makers to orientate themselves through the Green Deal, the impact of the pandemic, the sector’s regulations and industry chains in which Italy is leading the way.
Multiple Opportunities
Ecomondo’s Key Energy’s digital editions increase the usability of its widely qualified seminar program. From the 3rd to the 15th November, the Italian Exhibition Group expo will offer on its platform (accessible from the ecomondo.com and keyenergy.it websites upon registration) approximately 120 conferences and scientific, economic and energy policy workshops. A flow of strategic information, instruments and projects for pressing the accelerator of the Green turning point in Italy’s industrial economy and services. 209 billion euros of the Recovery Fund are in play: 37% of this sum will have to respond to large projects of sustainability and industrial circularity ensuring development on a ten-year scale.
Ecomondo- Key Energy 2020, the IEG expos of green technologies, circular economy and renewable energy, will therefore be the marketplace where buyers, companies, products, start-ups and industrial clusters meet, and where there will also be the scientific importance of the seminar part, the complete calendar of which is available in the Events section of the expo website.
The Role of the Green Deal
From the 9th edition of the States General of the Green Economy, a package of proposals will arrive for the Italian recovery plan with the use of Next Generation EU funds: “The green deal at the centre of the Italian recovery Plan. A new phase for green economy”. The States General are being held on 3rd and 4th November and are organized by the National Council of Green Economy in collaboration with the Ministry for the Environment and the patronage of the Ministry for Economic Development and the European Commission. The 2020 Report on the state of the green economy, the introductory document of the States General, will be presented by Edo Ronchi President of the Sustainable Development Foundation. The focus is dedicated to the impact of the pandemic on the green economy, according to the still partial data available.
The impact of Covid-19 on the circular economy, water quality, the agrifood chain, waste management and the water cycle: the panels are organized to give above all a clear insight on the Green Deal and its funding mechanisms (Thursday 5th, at 10 am and 2 pm), the most up to date overview of European and national regulations, the impact on the major industrial chains and, lastly, the case histories of companies that are to all effects models to be imitated.
Limiting Waste
Among the most significant appointments prepared by the Ecomondo scientific Committee led by Professor Fabio Fava of the University of Bologna, in collaboration with the sector’s main stakeholders, worthy of note is the event on the strategies fielded to free the Mediterranean from plastic litter, along with manufacturers and companies processing the raw material working in the area (Tuesday 3rd November, 2 pm and Friday the 6th, 9:30 am), the state of the coasts and defence against erosion caused by climate changes (Tuesday 3rd, 10 am) and the event dedicated to the “sea” mission of the Green Deal which focuses on the issue of “blue growth” (Wednesday 4th, 10 am).
The agrifood sector must also be considered essential for the sustainable transition, as it is fundamental to the capacity to provide necessary food resources for the constantly growing global population and the quality of food with the Green Deal “Farm to Fork” strategy (Tuesday 3rd, 2 pm) and the national Agrifood Cluster is already moving in this direction thanks to the central role of the Regions (Tuesday 3rd, 10 am) and soil care, an indispensable element for ensuring crop fertility and respect for the environment (Tuesday 4th, 10 am).
Plus, one of the issues on which Ecomondo has founded its authoritativeness on the market: waste cycle management. Spurred by the Covid emergency, the sector has shown its vitality and ability to reorganize itself; it is nevertheless crucial on the issue of lack of plants in Italy, for which a strategy is required (Tuesday 3rd, 3 pm). On this front, the activity of monitoring illicit environmental activities plays a key role(Wednesday 4th, 9 am) as does a specific analysis of individual product chains, such as, for example, plastic in the municipal waste cycle (Wednesday, 9:30 am). An increasingly important upstream role is played for the circularity of waste by the so-called “industrial symbiosis” (4th November, 10 am), and the new European regulations on municipal disposal of textile waste (Thursday 5th, 2 pm).
The Green Transition
The impact on the environment and the climate, normally associated with green transition, now finds applications in digitalization and the ability to process data from sensors installed on water infrastructures. In fact, climate-changing gases arrive from there, and from there elements of use for reducing their carbon footprint can arrive (Friday 6th, 10 am).
Lastly, Covid. Atmospheric pollution as a variable in the spread of the pandemic (3rd November, 2:30 pm), the resilience of the water cycle (Thursday 5th, 10 am) and the sustainability of the remediation and requalification of contaminated sites during the pandemic (Thursday 5th, 10 am) and, further afield, its impact on the circular economy and the related scenarios for both urban and rural communities and the social models that will follow (Wednesday 4th, 2:30 pm) will push even harder for a rapid redefinition of what forms a Nation’s wealth and what are the effective frontiers of the GDP (Wednesday 4th, 10 am).