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Enel Foundation speaks on Resilience

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Venice, 11th July, 2019

Climate change implications in the physical world are more and more common and visible to the global public, but the social impacts of its manifestations are often underrated, particularly when discussing climate change adaptation. As the social and economic disruptions caused by global warming give rise to new patterns of human activity, there is increasing research on the link between climate change and threats to state security and health.

The debate on Resilienceparticularly focusing on adaptation, requires a broad view that includes not only the physical level but also considers the impacts on social and economic disruptions at the city level.

On July 11 Enel Foundation contributed to this debate at The General Adaptation round table within AESOP (Association of European Schools of Planning) Annual Congress, organized with the support of UnipolSai and FEEM – Foundation Eni Enrico Mattei. The round table discussed how to prepare our cities through an approach to adaptation that can spur participation and community-based tools, regeneration and recovery, urban metabolism and circular economy, as three key pillars.

The 2019 AESOP Congress brought together scholars and professionals from all over the world to discuss the need of a general theory and practice on adaptation, also by describing local experiences.

Carlo Papa, Director of Enel Foundation, joined the round table highlighting the role of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) in working in a globally coordinated way towards the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses to ensure a sustainable future. UNDRR (formerly known as UNISDR) is the focal point of the United Nations system for disaster risk reduction and the custodian of the Sendai Framework, supporting countries and societies in its implementation, monitoring and review of progress.

 

Resilience Summer school

Enel Foundation, in collaboration with E-Distribuzione, participated to the special Workshop on resilience at the 2019 edition of the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Summer School (CIR). Hosted at Venice International University, the 2019 CIR offered a resilience training opportunity to graduate students and professionals. The School, set up in 2017, is led by the University of Rome Tor Vergata and brings together academics and professional experts to discuss the concept of Critical Infrastructure and the EU framework, presenting a series of tools and solutions for resilience.

Erdem Ergin, resilience advisor for United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Turkey, coordinated the ten modules of the School, spread out over five days of lectures (July 8-12). The main topics included successes and failures of critical infrastructure, the cascading effect from local to global due to infrastructure interdependence, resilience and the complex interdisciplinary theory behind it, and risk management, stressing the implementation of strategies and specific actions to control, reduce and transfer risks.

Enel Foundation Workshop focused on the issue of climate change in the strategic planning efforts and included a case study brought by e-distribuzione, making the case for resilience to enter the boardroom. Vincenzo Ranieri, CEO of E-Distribuzione, commented, “Climate change became one of the main stakeholder energy utilities have to deal with. Investing in a resilient infrastructure should be a priority of every network operator that provides a strategic service to the communities such as the electricity distribution. Technological innovations and an accurate planning of activities represent an essential support to foresee, to estimate the impacts and to face with extreme weather events”.

Complete program of the Summer School 2019 edition.

Brochure