Ecomondo to address environmental challenges, opportunities in North Africa

Environmental challenges and opportunities in North African and sub-Saharan countries will be the focus of part of the debate at Ecomondo and Key Energy 2022, taking place in Italy at Rimini Expo Centre Nov. 8-11. The events are organized by Italian Exhibition Group (IEG).

IEG CEO Corrado Peraboni says, “The most comprehensive exhibition in the field of circular and renewable energy, a platform for business and research, will, in fact, also become a veritable powerhouse for networking and exchanging opportunities between Europe and Africa.”

The global conferences were developed by the Ecomondo and Key Energy Technical-Scientific Committees, chaired respectively by Fabio Fava, deputy rector of the University of Bologna for Industrial Research, Territorial Cooperation and Innovation, and researcher Gianni Silvestrini, and will include participation from the European Commission. The conferences and seminars will feature international, national and local institutions, public and private companies and the scientific world, according to IEG. 

The Ecomondo program includes a session titled Waste as Resources: Innovative Technologies for Recycling And Recovery, which will present technological innovations that can improve the efficiency of secondary material valorization, increasing the circularity of materials and decreasing energy consumption. In Advanced Experiences on Circular Economy in the WEEE Sector, panelists will share best practices in place from companies throughout the value chain, from design and innovative business models to social aspects of waste management. Towards Transparency: The Role of Sustainable Finance Against Greenwashing will explore sustainable finance and its role in achieving the European Green Deal targets and a sustainable postpandemic recovery. 

African embassies, governments and institutions will meet at the second edition of Africa Green Growth to discuss growth opportunities in the fields of green hydrogen and the nexus of water energy and food, with a focus on the circular economy and youth entrepreneurship in Africa’s ever-increasing integration into the world economy. Africa Green Growth will be organized by RES4Africa and the Ecomondo-Key Energy Scientific Committee with the support of the Italian Trade Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Ministry of Ecological Transition. 

The transition from carbon-intensive fossil fuels will be addressed in Transition Towards Carbon Neutrality, an event chaired by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Bio-, Nano- and Converging Technologies (BNCT) task force, that will deal with the urgent need for a global carbon management strategy for the chemical sector that would endorse the sustainable circular economy approach. 

Furthermore, the European Commission will attend Water Projects Europe: Actions Needed for Water Scarcity and Drought, with a focus on the Mediterranean, organized with Water Europe, which will focus on EU-funded projects addressing water-shortage challenges. Francesco Fatone, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Biotechnology at the University of Verona, will chair the afternoon discussion.