Over one hundred events, but digital. From 3 to 15 November, the twenty-four edition of Ecomondo is, in some ways, historic. For the first time, thanks to the current national health emergency linked to Covid-19, the Rimini exhibition event will not be held in the presence but exclusively on the digital platform of the Italian Exhibition Group. Businesses and public decision-makers will therefore be able to take part in conferences, seminars and scientific and economic and energy policy workshops in smart working mode. Green Deal, the impact of the pandemic, sector regulations, supply chain cases where Italy is seeded will be the main topics of debate.
Recovery Fund for environmental sustainability
Ecomondo will discuss the 208 billion euros of the Recovery Fund: 37% of this figure will have to be invested in large ten-year sustainability and industrial circularity projects. The fair will therefore be a great virtual agora where opinion leaders, companies, buyers, industrial clusters and start-ups will be able to meet and discuss the strategies to be adopted for the economic and social revitalization of the country, in a green key. For Sergio Costa, Ministry of the Environment, the European funds of the Recovery Fund will be used in six main areas of action, which have the environment as a common denominator: digitization, innovation and competitiveness of the production system; green revolution and ecological transition; mobility infrastructure; education, training, research and culture; social, gender and territorial equity; health.
A manifesto for the Green Deal
For almost a decade, Ecomondo has hosted the General States of the Green Economy. This year we will discuss a package of proposals for the use of Next Generation Eu funds, to encourage investments in the green economy. The 2020 Report on the state of the green economy, introductory document of the States General, will be illustrated by Edo Ronchi, former minister for the environment, president of the Foundation for Sustainable Development. The focus is dedicated to the impact that the pandemic has had on the circular economy, but we will also discuss: water quality and cycle, agri-food chain, waste management. For the creators of the Manifesto “Exiting the pandemic with a new green deal for Italy”, the European Recovery Plan should, in the new and much more serious conditions generated by the pandemic, re-establish and relaunch, with a new Green Deal, the ambitious project European for an advanced, decarbonised and circular economy, where digital innovation must improve work, study and health care by reducing our ecological footprint.
Virtuous waste management
Among the most important events proposed by the Ecomondo Scientific Committee is agrifood, considered essential for the sustainable transition towards a society capable of coping with food resources for a constantly increasing global population. Ecomondo has built its fortune on the management of the waste cycle. Urged by the Covid emergency, the sector has shown vitality and ability to reorganize; however, the issue of the lack of plants in our country remains crucial for which a strategy is required. Air pollution is seen as a variable in the spread of the pandemic: its impact on the circular economy and the scenarios that follow, both for urban and rural communities and the social models that will follow, have pushed even more to a fast redefinition of what constitutes the wealth of a country and what are the actual borders of GDP.
