Capitale naturale e risorse per il futuro dell’Italia (FOE 2020)
Duration: From 01 Jan 2020 to 31 Dec 2029 (10 years)
Funding Institution: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)
Principal Investigator: Fabio Trincardi (ISMAR)
Contact person in IPCF: G. Barcaro
ERC Sector: PE4_13 Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
In our country, awareness is growing of how it is now unavoidable to connect development with the circular economy, limiting the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources (illusorily assumed to be infinite) and boosting the idea of reuse, recycling, and reduction of the ecological footprint. This is a change of perspective necessary to keep the planetary environment within acceptable limits, which will allow us to maintain and improve an increasingly technological and fair society in the distribution of well-being. Among the many consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will observe a trade reduction between countries and this fact will largely affect a country like Italy with few raw materials (such as gas or hydrocarbons), but large biological resources (e.g., in agricultural, forestry and marine ecosystems ). As our country bases its economy on manufacturing, trade, and services, the risk is to face a significant critical issue and limit the economy and living standards of a large part of the population. It is therefore necessary to connect the European perspective on the new Green Deal with that of the wise use of natural resources also in light of a reduction in global supply chains. In this context, the CNR, with its network of institutes distributed throughout the national territory and expertise in all research sectors, proposes to create a realistic and as quantitative as possible characterization of the set of biotic and abiotic resources available in our territory (also offshore) through a synthesis of big data in the following sectors: (1) Carbon storage and CO2 valorization from a circular economy perspective; (2) Raw materials; (3) Ecosystem services and biodiversity; (4) State of the land and its sustainable use; (5) Underground waters. In this context, the IPCF is one of the institutes active in the “Raw materials” theme and is contributing through studies based on multi-scale modeling applied to advanced materials developed according to sustainability priorities and in the valorization of sustainable processes.
Keywords: Sustainable processes; Advanced materials; Multi-scale modeling