Italy-Russia cooperation, together to catch new opportunities

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Scientific research, business, green economy, biodiversity, renewable energy, advanced innovation for agriculture. Those are the cornerstones of some international initiatives funded by the Government of Moscow that features as leading actors the excellence of Russian and Italian research (such as CMCC Foundation) and industrial partners. The issue has been discussed at COP22 in Marrakech during an event at the Italian Pavilion coordinated by Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea.

Four initiatives of utmost excellence for an unprecedented collaboration between Italy and Russia on research and sustainable innovation under climate change. The Government of Moscow funds in fact a series of initiatives that features the CMCC Foundation as a key actor for its capacity of advanced research while highlighting how scientific knowledge on climate change can have positive effects on industry, biodiversity, agriculture, renewable energy.

A smart climate lab for the Asia-Pacific Region in Vladivostok, an agro-ecology excellence research center in Moscow, a strategic pole for organic photovoltaics in Saint Petersburg, a green economy platform: these are the examples of cooperation between Italian and Russian scientific centers presented at the event “The opportunities of climate change at high latitudes: Italy-Russia cooperation” organized by the CMCC Foundation – Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change on Tuesday 15 November (h 10.30 a.m.) at the Italian Pavilion at COP22, Marrakech, Morocco. Gian Luca Galletti, Minister at Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea opened the event with a welcome message.

“It’s a precious opportunity – Antonio Navarra, CMCC Foundation President, said – in order to collaborate with Russian institutions and take advantage of our research activities for a series of initiatives underlining how our scientific knowledge on climate change, such as impacts on biodiversity and agriculture, can have significative positive effects on our socio-economic systems while fostering technological innovation in the energy sector or providing industrial partnerships”.

Good news for agriculture, but bad news for forests. The most eastern regions of Russian Federation are among the areas where climate scenarios predict a significative increase in temperature in the coming years. The effects might cause opposing outcomes: “On the one hand – as Riccardo Valentini, CMCC Foundation, Tuscia University and one of the main experts involved in this international collaboration, explains – it could be an opportunity for agriculture because warmer temperatures might associate to the availability of new cultivations and to a continous improvement of agricultural production leading to a better economic development for the region”. On the other hand the effects on forests, and more in general on natural ecosystems, could cause biodiversity loss, and a decline of natural resources and forestry areas.
“We are still studying what could happen, but concerning natural resources there are many signals of vulnerability”, Valentini points out. A research center completely new will be dedicated to those studies: University of Vladivostok and CMCC Foundation researchers will work together to analyze the impacts of climate change in the Asia-Pacific Region while highlighting opportunities and vulnerabilities in the field of agriculture, water resources, biodiversity and tourism. In the near future new sectors of study will be launched to explore the Arctic and oceans related issues.

Robotics at the service of agriculture. The Russian State Agrarian University in Moscow is one of the most important center for the study of agriculture. Here, an agro-ecology excellence research center will be realized and CMCC models will be used to develop technologies in the field of robotics for the realization of climate change scenarios. “CMCC Foundation contribution will concern in particular – Valentini explains – climate analyses that will be useful to identify areas suitable for agriculture in European Russia.

Had hoc lighting systems for boreal regions. A strategic pole for organic photovoltaics has been launched in Saint Petersburg. The research center, a collaboration between the local university and Tor Vergata and Southampton Universities, was launched by Russian Government with the aim to exploit Italian excellence in this field to develop new photovoltaic cells while using new, cutting edge materials for more efficient lighting systems, such as scattered light used in boreal regions.

The European platform for Green economy. Guest of honor at the event organized by CMCC Foundation at COP22 in this case will be Officinae Verdi, an Italian company that is realizing the most important green economy platform in Europe.

“We want to start innovation projects in Russia and at the international level with Green Capital Alliance® while combining economic value and natural capital protection. A model shift towards a sustainable green circular economy: Officinæ Verdi has reached important results and it has consolidated a strong expertise in energy efficiency; in its first 3 years of activities, it has developed green energy operations regarding energy efficiency & renewables projects for a total value of ∼100M€, creating more than 3.900 green job opportunities, and a reduction of 634.100 t of CO2”, Giovanni Tordi, CEO at Officinæ Verdi, said. “Russia has many resources to have a leading role in this transition towards a model of green economy, especially in terms of natural capital. Officinæ Verdi, born from the joint venture between UniCredit and WWF, is already present in Russia with many key projects for the development of the energy and the infrastructure sectors. With Green Capital Alliance®”, Tordi explains, “we want to foster a sustainable and highly efficient economic model while accelerating the spread of sustainable and scalable innovations (cleantech) in four sectors, that is Energy & Digital Energy, Food & Agriculture and Up-Cycle Systems, New Materials & Nanotechnologies sectors to cause a return for investors, CO2 emissions reduction, a drop in natural resources consumption fostering re-use and recycle especially in the agricultural sector while generating new jobs and professionals”.
 The CMCC Foundation is partner of the platform and will deal with the development of geo-climate analyses and short and long-term scenarios.

The high-profile speakers of the event: Gian Luca Galletti (Minister, Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea), Riccardo Valentini (Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Italy and Far Eastern Federal University, Russia), Antonio Navarra (Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Italy), Alexey Vitalievich Kavokin (Saint Petersburg State University, Russia), Giovanni Tordi (Officinæ Verdi, Italy), Ivan Vasenev (Russian State Agrarian University, Russia), Olga Nesterova (Far Eastern Federal University, Russia), Donatella Spano (Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Italy/ University of Sassari / Regional Minister for the Environment Protection – Sardinia, Italy).

Info: Mauro Buonocore – CMCC – Press Officer
[email protected]
tel. +39 0832 671060 

 

http://tec.cmcc.it

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