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Prof. Koundouri - Natural Capital in Sustainability Transition: A European Perspective

Prof. Ravazzi Douvan - Natural capital. Achievements, critical aspects and implementation of policies for sustainability

Prof. Rodriguez - Estimating the economic value of natural capital

Almost fifty years after the origin of the very concept of Natural Capital, and eight years after the "Natural Capital Declaration" during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the value of ecosystem services, the protection of biodiversity, as well as the sustainability of production and consumption models and the implementation of policies capable of guaranteeing the accessibility and protection of these services, continue to be controversial.

Despite the existence of recognized protocols and measurement systems capable of describing the effects of the economy on the environment, the same measurement of the value and state of health of ecosystem services continues to be the subject of discussion. At the same time, the implementation of policies able to protect the natural heritage, to limit its consumption and to guarantee ecological health, until now has not been adequate.

The webinar intends to analyse and deepen the concept of Natural Capital by retracing its history and its evolutions to better understand the way in which, until now, its value has been understood, declined and defined in economic policies and the novelty and potentiality of the recent development of the Green New Deal. A series of experts will be involved in framing the issue of ecosystem services, their measurement and describing strengths and weaknesses of international, national and local environmental policies.

Speakers

PHOEBE KOUNDOURI, Athens University of Economics and Business
Professor Dr. Phoebe Koundouri holds a PhD and MPhil in Economics and  Econometrics from the University of Cambridge (UK). She is Professor  (Chair) of Sustainable Development (Economics and Econometrics) at the  School of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business  (Greece) and she is the elected President of the European Association  of Environmental and Natural Resource Economists (EAERE) (with more  than 1200 scientific member institutions, from more than 75 different  countries). Prof. Koundouri is listed in the 1% of most-cited women  economists in the world, with 15 published books and more than 250  published scientific papers.
Prof. Phoebe Koundouri is also the Founder and Scientific Director of  the Research laboratory on Socio-Economic and Environmental  Sustainability (ReSEES) at the Athens University of Economics and  Business and an affiliated Professor at the ATHENA Research and  Innovation Center (Greece) where she directs EIT Climate-KIC Hub  Greece of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. She is  also the co-chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development  Network Greece (UN SDSN Greece), chair of the Scientific Advisory  Board of the International Centre for Research on the Environment and  the Economy (ICRE8) and chair of the scientific advisory board of the  European Forest Institute.
In the past, Professor Koundouri has held academic positions at the  University of Cambridge, University College London, the University of  Reading and the London School of Economics. She acts as an advisor to  the European Commission, World Bank, EIB, EBRD, OECD, UN, NATO, WHO,  numerous national and international foundations and organizations, as  well as national governments in all five continents. Notably she is  currently member of the drafting Priministerial Committee for 10-year  development plan for Greece, as well as in the Climate Change  Committee of the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy. She holds a  global leadership role in the UN SDSN for European Green Deal (EGD)  implementation, Sustainable SHipping and Ports, 4-seas Blue Growth  Initiative and is leader (together with Prof. Jeff Sachs) of the  Senior Working Group on Transformation Pathways for the implementation  of EGD. She is also a member of  the CEPR (Center for European and  Policy Research)  Network (RPN) on Climate Change  https://cepr.org/content/cepr-rpn-climate-change-researchers and a  Commissioner of the New Lancet Commission on COVID-19 of the Lancet  and the Sustainable Development Institute of the University of  Columbia, US https://covid19commission.org/commissioners.
Since 1997, she has coordinated more than 77 interdisciplinary  research projects and has attracted significant competitive research  funding. Professor Koundouri and her large interdisciplinary team have  produced research and policy results that have contributed to  accelerating the research commercialization for the sustainability  transition in Europe, as well as shaping European policies. Over the  last two decades, Professor Koundouri has given keynote and public  lecturers all over the world and received various prizes for academic  excellence.

ALDO RAVAZZI DOUVAN, Technical Secretary of the Italian Natural Capital Committee | Past-President, OECD Committee on Biodiversity, Water & Ecosystems | University of Roma Tor Vergata, Environmental Global Governance
Aldo Ravazzi Douvan has been:
President of OECD Committees on Tax & Environment; Integration of Economic & Environmental Policies; OECD Committee on Environmental Performance Country Reviews. Technical secretary of the Italian Observatory on Sustainable Finance, Italian Catalogue of EHS & EFS (Environmentally Harmful and Friendly Subsidies), Sustainable Development National Strategy.
President Green Budget Europe.
Technical Coordinator at G7 Environment Italian Presidency 2017.
Italian representative at IRP-UNEP (International Resources Panel), CPLC-WB (Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition), G20 FFS Peer Reviews, UNEP Experts group of SDG12c definition (FFS).
Chief economist at DG Sustainable Development & International Relations, Italian Ministry of Environment - Sogesid TA. http://www.minambiente.it/pagina/economia-ambientale

FEDERICO REGINATO, Ires Piemonte
Federico Reginato, anthropologist, works with the Research group on sustainability and governance of Ires Piemonte. His work addresses the relationship between education and sustainable development, the methodology of research and the instructional design.

FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ, Universidad de Salamanca
Fernando Rodriguez holds a Bachelor in Law and Bachelor in Economics, a Master of Arts in Economics from Boston University and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Salamanca. He has followed Ph.D. courses at Boston University (Economics, under the direction of Prof. Robert Rosenthal) and Harvard University (Environmental Economics, under the direction of Prof. Martin Weitzman). Fernando is tenure track professor and researcher in Economics, Environmental Economics and Public Policy at the University of Salamanca, as well as Director of the Master in Economic Analysis of Legal Issues and Public Policies since its start in 2006. He has been guest lecturer of Law and Economics, Public Policies and Environmental Economics at different universities and research centres of México, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay and Spain. He has worked as consultant to several private and public institutions at the regional, national and international level regarding energy and environmental regulation and finance. He is the main researcher of the project ESValues, which attempts to build the largest repository of economic values from studies of valuation of ecosystem services all around the world, with the aim of facilitating the valuation of natural capital by benefit transfer.

Working language: English

Partecipation is free upon registration.

For further info please contact info@turinschool.eu