What future for the environment? We answer now

Donald Trump's inauguration as the new US president in January and America's retreat on the progress and prospects related to the fight against climate change is a turning point that weighs on the future of the environment. Research, innovation, and investment are not enough if there is a lack of will, a lack of political direction. Science provides the numbers, experts make predictions: the path of reducing greenhouse gas emissions remains compulsory in order to keep the temperature increase limited compared to the pre-industrial period.

In between, however, there are those who have to decide, those who are called upon to bet on a world that does not yet exist, one that is able to reconcile the needs of nature and those of society. Reflection on the state of the environment must therefore necessarily start with Trump and the global consequences of the decision to return to fossil fuels.

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A complexity that adds to those of an energy system in transition, which is changing paradigm, with all the difficulties of the case. Widespread production from renewable sources, the need for investment in networks and storage systems, electrification of consumption, decarbonisation solutions for industry, transport and real estate, circular economy as a rethinking of resource consumption processes: these are all aspects of the same path, which Europe has decided to accelerate with the goal of reaching net zero in 2050. And which must necessarily be enriched with new urgencies, the water crisis and the biodiversity crisis in primis.

These are all issues on which research and innovation are flourishing, with more and more resources, including financial. Basic choices remain to be made, starting with who decides. What future for the environment? Please answer.