COP 28: the Sant'Anna School accredited for the third consecutive year as observer organisation to follow the international climate change negotiations
For the third consecutive year the Sant'Anna School is accredited as observer organisation at the United Nations 'Conference of the Parties' (COP 28) on Climate Change, scheduled to take place in Dubai, in the Arab Emirates, from 30 November to 12 December. Leaders from the world's governments, civil society, industry and finance will gather to take stock of the climate situation and assess global progress on the Paris Agreement in 2015.
The Sant'Anna School delegation consists of professors, researchers, PhD students from the Institutes of Management, Dirpolis and TeCIP, and the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Sustainability and Climate. Participation in COP28 represents an important opportunity for researchers from the Sant'Anna School to exchange views. The conference addresses many of the research topics conducted by the Sant'Anna School: the achievement of the objectives of the Paris Agreement, other numerous transnational agreements, the concrete start of the energy transition at a systemic level, public and private funding for mitigation and adaptation (in particular, the loss and damage fund for countries affected by the impacts of climate change), the report on the actions that each state has taken for the climate, the role in this challenge of science, local authorities and cities.
Specifically, the delegation, in addition to its participation in the negotiations, contributes to the discussion on environmental sustainability, the circular economy in the energy transition and industrial supply chains, adaptation to climate change and the role of cities, management of decarbonisation strategies in supply chains, energy transition and the role of hydrogen, agricultural policy and agri-food sustainability, the importance of protecting and restoring biodiversity, the concept of climate justice, and, in general, the role of institutions in the fight against climate change.
The Sant'Anna School's interventions
Specifically, the Scuola Sant'Anna delegation consists of: Marco Frey, Alberto Pirni, Alessio Novi, Vittorio Garibbo, Margherita Tranchina, Giovanni Del Re, Owais Khan, Giorgia Condomitti, Domenico Mecca, Manav Khanna, Daniele Barbone, Giorgia Corsini, Binyam Mekonnen Adera, Antonella Zaccara, Alice Petrucciani, Enrico Mezzacapo, Andrea Zuniga Sierra and Patrizia Gragnani.
As an accredited organisation, the Sant'Anna School participates in a number of COP28 side events.
Prof. Marco Frey is involved as a speaker in the following side events scheduled in the second week of the Conference. On 8 December 2023, the Professor is involved in three events: "L’Economia Circolare come motore della Transizione Ecologica nell’area del Mediterraneo" round table promoted by A2A S.p. A on the role of the Circular Economy in Italy and Europe; "Il ruolo delle università nel processo di decarbonizzazione delle aree urbane" (guidelines of the Climate Change Work Group of Italian Universities of the RUS - Network of Universities for Sustainable Development); "Raising the ambition of climate actions at urban level: recommendations for policymakers" panel organised by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Global Environment Facility (GEF), WMO/UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) to discuss how to expand national climate policies to include cities and local climate action.
On 9 December, Prof. Alberto Pirni is taking part in three initiatives: in the first, he is a speaker at the event organised by the United Nation - World Meteorological Organization (UN-WMO), on the theme: 'Communicating around early warnings: From disinformation to acceptance'. The event is being held in collaboration with other prestigious international organisations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), MERI Foundation and the National Center of Meteorology (NCM) of the United Arab Emirates, and will be hosted at the IPCC-WMO-MERI-NCM Pavilion.
The second, in collaboration with UN-WMO, IPCC, MERI and NCM, entitled 'Evolving status of global water resources in a changing climate'. The third on the theme: "Education & Training in Meteorology and Climatology", born from the collaboration coordinated by the Italian Air Force and structured between several institutions, such as CNR - Institute for BioEconomy, C-TEMPS - University of L'Aquila and University of Rome "Sapienza", Area of Ethics and Global Challenges of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna - Dirpolis Institute of Law, Politics and Development.
Two more events are on Frey's agenda: on 9 December, the Leonardo-sponsored event 'Technology Driven Climate Action' is scheduled to discuss the role of digital and space technologies as key tools for climate change mitigation and adaptation. On 10 December, the event "Accelerating climate ambition: Italian business commitment towards Net-Zero" promoted by the Global Compact Network Italy, of which Prof. Frey is president, is scheduled to present UNGCNI's research carried out in collaboration with IPSOS, on the commitment of Italian businesses towards the Net-zero objective (live streaming on the YouTube channel of the Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security: https://www.youtube.com/@MinAmbienteSicurezzaEnergetica)
