(Italian version) Il turismo è una delle maggiori fonti di ricchezza per l’economia italiana che, non potendo fare affidamento su grandi risorse naturali, deve puntare sulla valorizzazione di quelle culturali e paesaggistiche accanto alle proprie capacità di trasformazione ed esportazione di beni. Il settore e il suo indotto contribuiscono al PIL per l’11,8% e all’occupazione per il 12,8%.
Discussions at this roundtable kicked off with the observation that global economic growth, which has been particularly strong over the past year, has brought with it well-known benefits in terms of development (helping to combat extreme poverty, for instance), yet it has also marked a reversal in the trend of CO2 atmospheric emissions, which, after having stabilized for a three-year period, are rising again at a rate of around 1.5%. This once again poses the question of what measures are needed to decouple growth from emissions.
The participants at this national roundtable noted that digitalization is a paradigm that is not only revolutionizing the economy but the whole of society. This transformation transcends geographical boundaries, is not confined to particular sectors, and has also changed the market and the contractual rules that for decades have governed dealings between different economic actors.
Debate at this Conference for the Aspen Junior Fellows focused on the role of Italian businesses, which, in order to establish themselves within a global market, must perforce be engines of innovation, while at the same time creating social value that goes beyond the figures in their profit and loss accounts and balance sheets. The discussion also addressed the issue of youth employment, dwelling on the necessity of setting up training courses that heed the needs of the labor market and are capable of responding effectively to the changing requirements of firms.
Creativity, science and technology are the fundamental elements of the radical change that the digital revolution has brought to industry over recent years. Manufacturing – above all additive manufacturing – has reaped the benefits of the accelerated production timeframes and means resulting from the introduction of artificial intelligence, the ‘Internet of Things’ and 3D printing. The digital revolution does not hinge on technology alone however, it is primarily cultural, with suppliers either adapting or vanishing in this ecosystem of newly created materials.
The problem of global warming can no longer be deferred if its catastrophic planet-wide consequences are to be avoided. That was the message of a special report issued in October by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the most authoritative scientific body dedicated to the study of climate change. According to the report, at the current rate, by 2030 the global temperature increase will surpass 1.5°C, which is considered the upper safety limit for containing and managing the fall-out, albeit at the cost of massive investments in financial, material and human resources.
The winner of the third edition of the Aspen Institute Italia Award for scientific research and collaboration between Italy and the United States was a study entitled “The quest for forbidden crystals”, conducted by Luca Bindi, Associate Professor of Mineralogy and Crystallography at the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Florence, and by Paul J. Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor in Science and Director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science at Princeton University.
Aspen Institute Italia’s aim in organizing this roundtable was to foster debate on the challenges involved in integrating foreigners into Italian society. By way of introduction, it was noted that, over the years, the number of foreign nationals permanently residing in Italy has grown steadily and is set to continue to rise, as will the number of immigrants acquiring Italian citizenship. In a very short space of time, Italy’s society has been transformed, in line with what has happened in other countries such as France and the United Kingdom, and can no longer be considered mono-ethnic.
