Eurispes proposals to the Brics Civil Forum on sustainable urban development and the environment, climate and energy
Policies for sustainability require States to make two very precise commitments: to assume the “quality of development” as the central element of reference and to work with simultaneous and integrated advances in the three dimensions indicated by the United Nations: economic, social and environmental. It is with this in mind that Eurispes presented an organic set of proposals at two sessions of the Brics Civil Forum.
The first session, held on August 18, 2020, was dedicated to the theme of sustainable development of cities and agricultural territories and the territorial rebalancing actions to be promoted in the post-Covid phase. The session, introduced by Prof. Victoria Panova and chaired by Prof. Irina Yarygina of Moscow Financial University, was attended by the Secretary General of Eurispes, Marco Ricceri. Eurispes’ proposals, based on studies conducted for several years in Italy on the value of the territorial economy, presented an organic set of initiatives centred on two main axes: the promotion of a different and more balanced territorial development between town and country, with investment plans that are able to seize the great opportunities of the digital revolution, and the valorisation of the virtuous behaviour of citizens in order to spread as much as possible in civil society, in the daily behaviour of citizens, the awareness of the importance of operating according to the principles of sustainability.
The second session, held on September 4, 2020, dedicated to strategies on the environment, climate and energy, was chaired by Prof. Vladimir Churgof, and coordinated by Julia Kazakova, of Green Peace in Moscow, and saw the participation of Prof. Fabrizio Zucca, a member of the Eurispes Scientific Committee. Eurispes’ proposals emphasised that the transition to a green economy, on which all states have made precise commitments at international level, requires the organisation of a new governance system based on close cooperation between the state, businesses and civil society organisations and a valid system of incentives and disincentives in favour of new investment and production choices. Within the framework of new policies, companies should be stimulated to adopt “integrated balance sheet” practices, as an appropriate tool to highlight, along with profit values, also the environmental and social values promoted by company activities; at the same time, citizens should be urged to adopt new consumption models. Within this framework, there are initiatives to support the circular economy, which – Eurispes stressed – must be evaluated as a true new economic model.
There was unanimous agreement among the speakers on these important occasions that the scientific community should strengthen international cooperation by working on the platform that all states have in common – the platform of sustainable development – and thus contribute to reducing the serious tensions that the pandemic crisis threatens to further exacerbate globally.
Below you can download the documents with the proposals: