Chronological archive
18 May 2020
The future of energy market
David Livingston
Deputy Director Climate and Advanced Energy, Atlantic Council
Meeting in digital format
17 December 2020
The challenge of European Digital Sovereignty
Digital technology is clearly a fundamental sector of the twenty-first century economy. It also demands deep behavioral adaptation by individuals and the society as a whole, a new legislative framework and conceptual tools. There is broad consensus in Europe by now about the need to ensure greater autonomy with the freedom to set effective rules in this pivotal sector, establishing what is known as “digital sovereignty”.
Meeting in digital format
10 December 2020
A recipe to relaunch Italy’s economy
Italy must not underestimate the challenge of generating economic recovery using Next Generation EU resources. Europe, after so many years of hesitancy, made a decided shift in gears when it reached out to the market to collect the funds for reconstruction. It is now up to individual countries to submit credible recovery plans. There are various glitches to be resolved when it comes to the Italian situation – first among them being to formulate a consistent vision of the country’s future.
Meeting in digital format
9 December 2020
A new Green Deal between Europe and the US
The European Union has finally taken a vanguard position on green energy and climate change, approving major steps by other nations, such as China, Japan, South Africa, South Korea and the United States. The election of Joe Biden to the White House and the appointment of John Kerry as special climate envoy strongly suggest that transatlantic cooperation on the Green Deal, among other things, will be relaunched.
Meeting in digital format
3 December 2020
Southern Italy: the key to relaunching the Italian economy?
Southern Italy needs a new vision for the future built on consideration of its system strongpoints and on a deeper scrutiny of its problems, with a view to identifying alternative proposals focused on the competitive capacity of those regions, with the goal of improving the business environment.
Meeting in digital format
30 November 2020
Making the most of Italy’s energy resources
In stark contrast with the past, any analysis of the year 2020 is dominated by the profound impact of a pandemic so capricious as to thwart any attempt at predicting the future. The fundamental question is whether the change has been a structural one and, as regards energy, if it is capable on its own of accelerating or slowing decarbonization, given the fact that the energy industry remains a prime sector within which to seize recovery-related opportunities.
Meeting in digital format
23 November 2020
Italy’s health system: finding a balance between emergencies and routine care
The Italian healthcare system continues to feel the pressure of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the outlay of financial and organizational resources needed to confront the emergency must not take the focus off the structural issues posed by the need to protect a steadily ageing population’s health. Instead, the pandemic should offer an opportunity to highlight existing shortcomings and create new models with which to confront a future return to normality.
Meeting in digital format
19 November 2020
Smart Land: Can small towns and outlying areas be an option in the country’s pursuit of growth?
A return to life in small towns and outlying areas could offer a strategic opportunity for Italian post-pandemic economic recovery. Italy’s environmental and cultural heritage can become pivotal elements in the framework of long-term policies conceived in continuity with some ideas previously promoted at both national and local levels, with the aim of regulating the equilibrium between the economic development of cities, small towns and remote areas.
Meeting in digital format
18 November 2020
The Pandemic and the power sector
An overall energy transition is under way, and has been for several years despite significant structural obstacles and cyclical ups and downs. The ongoing pandemic and the related economic slowdown have come at a critical juncture in this respect. Today’s situation has highlighted a connection between GDP levels, population density and the impact of Covid-19 infections – likely through air quality – as manifested in various areas of Northern Italy and probably elsewhere.
Meeting in digital format
17 November 2020
Research and innovation for life sciences in Italy
The daily effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on every individual and organization are clearly foregrounding how wealth and health go hand in hand. The quest for health – the focus of the political agenda and objectives of every government – will influence every government’s process of reconstruction for months to come.
Meeting in digital format
16 November 2020
Generational turnover in Italy
Business is the fundamental agent in the recovery of an economy struck as dramatically by the pandemic as Italy’s has been. To determine whether that recovery will be a success we need to consider the system’s economic armature of countless small and medium-sized family-run enterprises. Today’s generational hand-over becomes even more important than it has been over recent decades. At stake is the result of the major challenges awaiting national manufacturing: the digital transformation and the environmental transition.
Meeting in digital format
13 November 2020
Doing business in Italy
“Doing business” is a term that evokes complexity and challenge, especially when paired with “in Italy”, a country well known for its structural problems and irreconcilable contradictions: Structural problems consisting of a slow and chaotic bureaucracy, lack of legal certainty – due to repeated impulsive legislative modifications as well as to inconsistency and sluggishness in the judicial application of the law – and excessive difficulty accessing credit; irreconcilable contradictions in the form, first, of constant references to entrepreneurs as the drivers of economic recovery clash, wi
Meeting in digital format
12 November 2020
Post elections USA and economic trends
Joe Biden is not going to have an easy launch into the White House. Not only because of the way Donald Trump’s behaving but, essentially, because the Democrats have lost several seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate run-off elections in Georgia on January 5th could award the two missing seats to the Republicans, creating a “divided government” that would make it very difficult for Biden to stick to his agenda – especially in terms of the economy.
Meeting in digital format
11 November 2020
The world post Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world to the edge of a new frontier, and underscored the urgency need to redesign economic systems and development models, opting for what the new European Commission has described as greener and more sustainable and inclusive approaches. China, where it all started, has been the first nation to succeed in controlling and preventing the pandemic.
Meeting in digital format
9 November 2020
Building an interconnected society: infrastructure, investment, innovation and integration
The pandemic has had a considerable impact on lifestyles, both temporarily and longer term (structurally). Even after the arrival of an anti-coronavirus vaccine, an interconnected society is going to have to recuperate a good number of physical living spaces in order to get back to “normal”. That means fewer distance-based activities, some of which, however, are bound to remain useful and will tend to be employed more as we move forward than they were in pre-emergency times.
Meeting in digital format
5 November 2020
X-raying the US elections. A one hour conversation with Charlie Cook
The most accurate way to assess the 2020 election would be to compare it to Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, when Hillary Clinton carried 20 States to his 30.
The 2020 situation is significantly different. Joe Biden’s basic goal was to win in the States that Clinton lost back then by less than 1% and he has done that, which is enough to explain the gap in his favor both across the nation and in key States such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Meeting in digital format
4 November 2020
Science, politics, society: different speeds, common challenges
The relationship between politics, science and society is playing an increasingly prominent role in rising to the challenges of modernity. A strong alliance of political institutions, scientists, experts and citizens is essential to defeating the global pandemic, but also an essential prerequisite for the success of policies aimed at inverting the advance of climate change and introducing new technologies and new solutions for boosting the quality of life, prosperity and wealth of modern societies.