The Nobel Parisi:«Climate change is a clear problem, but the costs of solving it are very high and would end up affecting the weak»

Nobel Prize winning physicist:«It is important to bring back to individual countries a whole series of production capacities that had been relocated elsewhere»

Climate change is now evident, and the race against time to try to mitigate its impact through the development and use of green technologies is now a matter of strategic importance for the future.The costs of managing to stem it are very high, especially in a post-pandemic context and with a long-lasting and wide-ranging conflict such as the one triggered by Russia against Ukraine.It therefore becomes necessary and urgent to increase the use, but also the production, of highly sustainable technologies for the environment, collaborating between different countries, combining science, diplomacy and industrial production.The costs are very high, and could have an even more devastating impact on the weakest sections of the population not only in economic terms, but above all in terms of individual and social health.And in the wake ofacceleration on the use and development of green technologies desired by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella during his trip to Norway, also the Nobel Prize Giorgio Parisi reiterates the absolute urgency of the steps to be taken in a compact and united way in order to reduce the effects of climate change on the planet and on human beings.

The lectio magistralis

«The only way to fight the climate emergency is to try to address it in a fair and supportive manner and to ensure that the weakest sections of the population do not suffer from the measures adopted.It is a battle that has colossal costs and not just monetary ones:it's about having to partially change our standard of living and habits.These costs must be spread across the entire population, but especially among the wealthiest.However, all this is not practicable in a war scenario:a cohesive humanity is needed,” he says.Interviewed by Republic on the sidelines of lectio magistralis “Science and Peace” for the inauguration of the academic year at the University of Bari, Professor Parisi underlined how the war has made clear to everyone «the problems of a globalized economy, in which there are countries where there is no just an agricultural but industrial monoculture.There are countries that have specialized in certain sectors and we have seen that, if an entire production sector is concentrated in one country, it then becomes complicated if that country has difficulty continuing."

Chip problems

And the physicist Parisi continues:«We have seen first-hand all the problems related to chips that are blocking several production cycles.The use of renewables is certainly a possible solution but, in general, it is important to bring back to individual countries a whole series of production capacities that had been relocated elsewhere."The professor, fully aware of the difficulty of the operation, however reminds us that the emergency Covid can create a precedent that is also an example in the context of green energy policies on a national scale:«Right at the beginning of Covid, masks were needed and there were no producers in all of Europe.It is not reasonable for this to happen for goods that may be essential.Energy is not everything:it is necessary to rebuild local autonomy in various areas."

Climate changes

In short, climate change and the ecological transition are not just words, but concrete facts that on the one hand are tangible, while on the other a strategic plan that can at least slow them down, changing lifestyles, investing in research and innovation and in industrial production also on a national scale, defending strategic assets.Safety, health and above all the future are at stake.