Giorgio Fazio (p), Sara Maioli, Nirat Rujimora

Annamaria Tueske

This paper assesses the transition of UK regions towards the policy ambitions of “building back greener” and “levelling-up” the UK economy. We use data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods to calculate regional economic and environmental efficiency for 41 UK ITL2 regions between 2005-2020, and then assess their “unconditional” and “spatial” transition probabilities of achieving one of the two or both. We find a trade-off between the two for more than half of the regions and that the costs of transition are unequally distributed. We also find that regions are more likely to become efficient in both directions if they are already environmentally efficient; less economically efficient regions are more likely to become economically efficient than environmentally efficient. Economic efficiency improvements are easier to achieve than environmental efficiency improvements, requiring stronger policy support for the latter.
The high inertia of regions require central and local authorities interventions to reduce regional inequalities and improve both types of efficiencies. Whilst we do not find spatial spillovers for environmental transitions, space (negatively) matters for regional economic efficiency. Without a combination of place-based and national policies efficiency there is no natural regional convergence nor levelling up, whilst the transition to net zero will remain too slow.

Marek Degorski (p)

Giorgio Fazio

Obtaining the best possible human living conditions is one of the basic operational tasks resulting from the conceptual assumptions of sustainable development. Man, being the subject of the geographical environment system, has the undoubted right to live in optimal living conditions, shaped by the interactive interdependence of social and economic processes and natural phenomena. However, it is not always possible to achieve a state of harmonious functioning of the megasystem of the geographical environment, undisturbed by external factors, characterized by a balanced flow of matter and energy within its individual systems (natural and anthropogenic) and between them. This balance is often disturbed by natural exogenous and endogenous or anthropogenic factors that determine its functioning.
One of the direct causes of the disturbances observed in the geographical environment megasystem in recent years is the progressive increase in temperature on the globe. In the face of these changes, the functioning of areas characterized by the highest population density and human-made environment, i.e. cities, is very important from the point of view of the life of societies. These areas are often overpopulated, with over 20,000 inhabitants living per 1 km2, and the accumulation of a large number of buildings and technical infrastructure in a limited space has a modifying effect on basic climate elements, such as air temperature, rainfall and wind strength. On the other hand, many local natural factors influence the city's climate, such as the topography and land cover, the presence of water reservoirs, and the size of biologically active areas. The city's climate is also influenced by other elements related to human activity. These include: industry and transport. Both are characterized by high concentration in urban areas and contribute huge amounts of various types of pollutants to the atmospheric air, creating a spatially expanding urban heat island.
The improvement of the living conditions of residents and their well-being is largely influenced by the natural potential, which can generate services that improve the sanitary condition of the environment, strengthen the development potential of the city in the social and economic context, as well as strengthen its resilience and external factors. The aim of the presentation is to present research results in the field of services provided by ecosystems on the example of Warsaw. The research was carried out at various spatial scales, from the scale of the entire city to the scale of a housing estate.

Francesco Scotti (p), Giovanni Bonaccorsi, Alessandro Buongiorno, Andrea Gilardi, Mario Intini, Valeria Maria Urbano

Marek Degorski

During the programming period 2014-2020 the sustainability transition represented a key pillar of the EU Cohesion Policy. However, the bulk of extant contributions still investigates the impact of such regulatory framework in terms of socio-economic growth, neglecting its contribution to the achievement of environmental targets such as carbon abatement. This paper aims to fill this gap, by analysing the effects generated by green Cohesion Policy funds in terms of PM2.5 reduction across municipalities with a heterogeneous level of territorial capital in Italy. Through the application of panel Spatial Durbin Models (SDM), we highlight that such programs of financial support display both a significant direct and indirect effect in municipalities characterized by a high economic capital. Indeed, funds targeting carbon abatement tend to reduce PM2.5 concentration levels both in the municipalities where such projects are implemented and in the neighbour municipalities. We rather show how these green funds are associated only with significant spillovers in the cluster of Italian municipalities exhibiting a strong presence of Tourism infrastructures. We rather do not find significant direct and indirect effects in the cluster of municipalities mainly located in the Centre-South of Italy with high levels of territorial capital. We also discuss how these findings might be related to the local high quality institutional capacity and to the capability to select and implement projects actually contributing to carbon abatement. Overall, our paper may contribute to a more precise understanding of the impact generated by EU Cohesion Policy in terms of carbon abatement.

Andrea Brasili, Cristina Brasili, Annamaria Tueske (p), Kateljine Klaassen

Francesco Scotti

The motivation of this work is to highlight the relationship between public and private investments at a granular level, by using the EIBIS survey and the Kohesio database. We find that EU public investment and capital transfers promote private investment and this relationship is traceable at firm level. In addition, and going more in details, EU public investment intended to tackle climate change (including mitigation and adaptation) has a positive impact on a firms’ planned investment with the same objectives.
This paper examines the impact of EU funds spent in the Italian regions (at Nuts3 level) in the form of public investment or capital transfers. In particular, this analysis analyses the role of EU funds spent locally in stimulating private investment and hence facilitating economic growth and development, with a specific focus on climate-related investments. While research on the impact of public expenditures on private sector decision-making has a long history, it is still challenging to find subnational data on public investment that allows for an analysis with microdata. This is especially true when considering public and private investment related to climate change. Preliminary results suggest that the usual explanatory variables for firm level investments are significant and with the expected sign. The variable representing public investment demonstrates a positive and significant impact on firm level investment. Capital transfers also prove to be effective in promoting private investments. Our results underscores the importance of Structural Funds in fostering private investment, particularly in less developed regions, and particularly when there is an improvement in local institutional quality. By utilizing data from Kohesio for climate-related public investment and data from EIBIS for climate-related private investment, we were able to delve deeper into the analysis. The overall positive impact of climate-related public investment on climate-related private investment is also reaffirmed with this data.