The challenges of sustainability at the SCC Festival of Economics

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Institutional Communication Service

31 March 2023

The 2023 Festival of Economics, organised by the Scuola cantonale di commercio in Bellinzona was held from 23 to 30 March. Among the speakers was Professor Barbara Antonioli Mantegazzini, Vice-Director of IRE, who met with third-year students. The title of her talk was "The history and future of sustainability: the role of the economy and institutions".

 

Professor Antonioli Mantegazzini, how alive is the interest of young people towards sustainability issues?

The general feeling was very positive, both concerning the initiative itself, which was geared towards discussing such an important topic as sustainability without prejudice or preconceived ideologies, and with regard to the participation of the students, who all seemed to me to be very interested in deepening, including through questions. This issue inevitably concerns them enormously, and they have perhaps not yet grasped all its complexity.

 

Is the economy seen as an ally, or is it rather perceived as a threat to the environment?

I don't know how they perceive the economy. Still, my role has also been to explain to them how the economy can facilitate but also, in some cases, make the path to sustainable development more difficult. This is because it is a matter of reconciling different dimensions - economic, social and environmental - that may also be at odds with each other. The exercise we are being asked to undertake is far from simple, not least because it requires the preparation of a reliable system for measuring the achievement of objectives, which also takes into account the overlaps between the different aspects.

 

What was the focus of your talk?

My speech tried to explain how the emphasis on sustainability has evolved over time and how this growing attention has also characterised regulatory efforts and the definition of the regulatory framework. After an initial phase of 'awareness', which lasted over time also because it was based on the agreement of almost two hundred different countries, we are now witnessing a sudden acceleration with regard to the objectives to be achieved, especially environmental ones. The shift from the climate issue to the 'climate crisis' has imparted the urgency that was perhaps missing, forcing institutions and even the business world to start thinking in different terms. Despite the fact that we are thus witnessing this sort of collective mobilisation in favour of sustainability, the grounding of measures continues to be problematic. It may, for example, be surprising how projects that seek to promote the development of renewables encounter obstacles in their realisation, for cultural and social reasons. In this sense, one role of institutions is to be credible in pursuing their goals, favouring, where possible the participation of citizens and the business community, e.g. through organisational instruments such as energy communities.

 

Are institutions also called upon to address the inequalities that may result from these sustainability actions?

This, too, is a key issue, which has become progressively more apparent in recent times. Sustainability has undoubted benefits and concrete costs, which weigh differently on citizens and businesses, in some cases quite heavily. I am thinking of households or low-income individuals and small businesses, for whom compliance with the regulations in question could represent a major burden, eroding the resources available for alternative uses. Institutions have therefore begun to think along these lines, for example by preparing a series of instruments, including financial ones, to cushion these possible inequalities. Initially, the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda were drawn up with the underlying objective of the 'eradication' of all forms of poverty, mainly extreme poverty. It would therefore be paradoxical if the very pursuit of these goals ended up creating new, different categories of vulnerable citizens and entrepreneurs.