Experts and policy makers discussed one of the major challenges of the 21st century in a workshop organised within the public engagement activities of the GROWINPRO project
The workshop took place on September 9 at 2 pm at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa. It is organised within the public engagement activities of the EU H2020 project GROWINPRO, with the support of the Department of Excellence EMbeDS and of 3CSA (the Centre for Climate Change studies and Sustainable Actions) an inter-university centre supported by the Federation of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, the Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa and the University School for Advanced Studies – IUSS of Pavia.
Lord Adair Turner, chairman of the Energy Transitions Commission, Senior Fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) and former chairman of the Climate Change Committee at the House of Lords, discussed challenges and opportunities related to climate change with Roberto Buizza (Professor of Physics at Sant’Anna and coordinator of 3CSA), Giovanni Dosi, Andrea Roventini (Professors of Economics at Sant’Anna and researchers of the GROWINPRO project) and policy makers.
Adair Turner’s lecture considered the macro-economic nature and consequences of transiting to a zero carbon economy, and the specific action needed to build it.
‘There is no doubt that it is technically possible to build a zero carbon economy, and that if the world did so by 2050, the cost to economic growth and consumer standards would be minimal’, says A. Turner. ‘But achieving that objective will require a major redirection of investment from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, and will not occur without forceful public policies, including the introduction of carbon taxes, regulation and technology development support’.