Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica "Cognetti de Martiis"

The Laboratory is designed to put the students in front of real-life case-studies that the teacher and his colleagues have addressed or are addressing to support the activities of governments, corporate and financial clients in navigating the main themes of the ecological transition. 

The focus of the activities will be on defining practical approaches to address the issues that environmental managers and decision makers are confronted with every day, and in doing so to acquire familiarity with policies, standards, datasets and stakeholder expectations.

Familiarity with the most important requirements of the EU Taxonomy of Green Investments, the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) and the Task Force for Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). These requirements are increasingly shaping the activities of companies and the financial system and pose a series of new challenges to the practitioners in the environmental management field, as they need to deal with increasingly complex methodologies, vast datasets, and inherent uncertainties.

Introduction - the need and urgency of the ecological transition

Management and conservation of biodiversity

Management and conservation of biodiversity

Physical climate risks and adaptation to climate change 

Physical climate risks and adaptation to climate change

Climate change mitigation and management of GHG

Climate change mitigation and management of GHG

Transition to a decarbonized economy 

Transition to a decarbonized economy

The Laboratory will address four main thematic areas:

• Biodiversity
• Climate change adaptation
• Climate change mitigation
• The ecological transition

Each main theme will be approached in two sessions, through the following activities:

Session1

Introduction: 45 min

The teacher will provide an introduction on the issues and the main strategies to deal with it. This will cover basic concepts, main policies, initiatives and tools to address the issues at governmental, business, and societal levels.

Q&A: 15 min

Assignment description: 15 min

Assignments are meant for groups up to 5-6 students and will consist in the preparation of a short essays in the form of a ppt presentation describing the proposed approach to address real-life case studies. The objectives of the assignment are to develop an approach to address the issues in terms of applicable policies, standards and commitments, data and information needs, work streams, expertise required, people and functions to involve, type and structure of deliverables.      

Groups set-up and framing: 45 min

During this stage the groups will form and start discussing the workplan and they will have an opportunity to ask questions and share doubts among them and with the teacher. Ideally this part will produce a workplan for the groups and define timelines, roles and responsibilities.

Session 2

Groups presentations: 60 min

Each group will present its findings and conclusions about the assignment, highlighting in particular the challenges encountered in terms of policy interpretation, data availability and management, level of standardization, stakeholder engagement, etc. Each presentation will be 15 min plus 5 min Q&A.

Open discussion: 60 min

We will collectively reflect on the group’s assignments and review the introductory concepts based on the experience gained.

The learning level will be tested based on the results of the essays assigned to the students during the laboratory