Andrea Salustri (p), Alessandro Locatelli , Andrea Appolloni

This paper briefly summarizes, within the general framework of the knowledge economy, the historical evolution of the space economy and, within it, of space-borne Earth Observations (EO). Lying on these premises, the research briefly defines and illustrates the composition of the space economy within a general economic framework involving, knowledge, innovation, markets and development. Finally, the research proposes a geographic reflection on how the rapid development of the space economy initiated during the second half of the XXth century fostered a process of dematerialization and digitalization of the most advanced regional economies, alimenting the course of globalization. The latter determines at regional level a spatialization of the economic relations, fostering patterns of innovation based on increasing proximity (not necessarily geographical, more often relational) among the actors involved. Not all regions are able to follow spatial innovation patterns, and therefore some kind of between regional inequality is increasing. Futhermore, at local level, inner areas might suffer of scarce accessibility to regional networks and, due to increasing distance costs
alimented by a process of peripheralization, territorial marginalization might follow an increasing (rather than decreasing) trend. On the other hand, the augmented availability of low-cost resources in marginal areas might foster a process of decentralization of productive activities toward regional peripheries, rather than toward other regions, due to a mix of social proximity and reduced distance costs. Therefore, urban areas might lose their primate over rural suburbs and natural areas, and the new regional core might lose its concentration, becoming widely dispersed across the territory.
Lying on the results of the analysis it seems that, in the current space-time compression, social conflicts might evolve into social cooperation, as all individuals and institutions are called to play a role in the activation of processes of resilient transformation toward sustainable development. Within this general framework, social and territorial inequalities caused by (social and territorial) distance costs should be targeted in order to eradicate persistent forms of marginalization, poverty and exclusion, that, notwithstanding their local relevance, might have negative impacts on the economic system as a whole. Within these processes, EO can play a key role in collecting (not only) environmental information at the global scale, providing a crucial contribution in achieving most of the Sustainable Development Goals, as widely documented by the Group on Earth Observations.

Rosita Pretaroli, Francesca Severini, Claudio Socci, Jacopo Zotti (p)

In 2015, the EU-Commission launched an EU action plan for the Circular Economy with the aim of giving a new boost to investment, growth, jobs and competitiveness while turning the economy into a carbon neutral and a resource-efficient system. The EU Member States are called to introduce concrete policy measures to improve the degree of circularity of their economies. By fostering recycling, remanufacturing, reuse and all those circularity strategies, which eventually contribute to waste minimisation, these measures are expected to bring benefits both for the citizens and for the territory. When assessing the economic effects of circularity, it is important to keep track of its implications on the different production activities and on the different Institutional Sectors. Indeed, a more circular economy means that industrial production shifts towards resource use minimization, materials’ reuse, design for disassembly, for remanufacturing and recyclability. At the same time, the transition towards a more circular economy cannot neglect the Institutional sectors, in consideration of their crucial role in shaping new and more responsible consumption patterns.
In view of the twofold aim of circularity polices, which contemporaneously involve an economic and a material-related angle, any analysis of their effects should ideally rely on a double accounting system, in which the standard flows due to the circular flow of income are complemented by the monetary flows related to energy and materials. Indeed, only in this framework, it is possible to account for the flows, which production activities and Institutional Sectors re-convey into the economy through circularity. In this vein, this paper provides a multi-sectoral analysis of the emissions and waste flows for the Italian economy in 2014. The first advancement of the paper is a novel accounting framework, in which waste generation and air pollution are related to the Social Accounting Matrix. The second is a dynamic computable general equilibrium model, in which economic actors’ optimizing behaviour affects the environment through waste and emission flows. The third is in terms of simulations results, and it comes from the quantitative assessment of a set of policies aiming at stimulating Italy’s transition towards a more circular economy. Coherently with the framework adopted, simulation results entail a quantification of the effects on the economic and the environmental variables. In this perspective, these results are relevant for policymaking, as they provide useful insights regarding strengths and weaknesses of diverse policy measures, all aiming at implementing the composite objective of circularity.

Riccardo Cappellin (p)

Industrial policy models have seen a continuous evolution over the last 60 years, as the result of the evolution of technologies, of the patterns of consumer demand and of the changes in production specialization. In the future, the supply/productions and the demand/needs will increasingly interact according to a “circular model”. A New European Industrial Strategy should promote a greater growth of all regions and of modern high quality productions and it should also aim to a better environmental quality and a better quality life of the citizens in the territory and especially in the urban areas. That also represents a driver for the creation of new productions and occupations and promote a diversification towards modern industrial activities. A New European Industrial Strategy should promote the companies to adopt a broader sense of purpose against short-termism, considering both social and environmental outcomes and not only the financial outcomes and profits. Therefore, companies should be committed to take concrete actions, which meet the needs of all stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers, local communities, not just the shareholders. A new "European Industrial Strategy" should promote a large program of private and public investment at the European scale aiming to increase the European internal demand by approximately 500 billion euro every year equal to the actual surplus of the external current balance. In particular, the operational planning of the interventions of the “New European Industrial Strategy” must take into account three dimensions, which are strictly interdependent: the territorial or local dimension, the technological / sectoral dimension and the financial and by type of company dimension. Thus, a European industrial strategy that promotes economic growth and a better quality of life in the different areas of the European Union certainly represents a "European added value" with respect to the limits of the current European and national economic, monetary and fiscal policies.