Start website main content

  • Istituto di Economia

The Economics of Climate Change: Francesco Lamperti and Andrea Roventini, full professors, authors of the entry for the Treccani Encyclopaedia. The main elements, from communication to the need for "green investments"

Publication date: 21.01.2025
Prevedere il clima_Cambiamento climatico
Back to Sant'Anna Magazine

The Economics of Climate Change’ is the entry included in the 11th Appendix of the Italian Encyclopaedia of Sciences, Letters and Arts of the Treccani Encyclopaedia, authored by Francesco Lamperti and Andrea Roventini, full professors at the Institute of Economics of the Sant'Anna School. The Enciclopedia Treccani is the most famous encyclopaedia in the Italian language, published by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. 

‘The economics of climate change,’ the authors write in the first lines of the entry, ‘aims to study the bidirectional relationship linking climate to socioeconomic activity, i.e. how anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases influence temperature, precipitation and other climate variables, and how climate variations affect human activities, particularly through extreme events

The main points of the entry written by Francesco Lamperti and Andrea Roventini are presented below, in a very concise manner. 

The role of communication in making climate change a socially relevant phenomenon, the challenges and opportunities in communication, the importance of effective narratives to raise awareness and mobilise the public. The influence of the media on the public perception of climate change, the most widely used sources of information in Italy and how the media present the phenomenon and its social and economic consequences.

The difficulties in communicating climate change effectively. Strategies to overcome communication obstacles, the importance of citing reliable sources and conveying messages that dialogue with the public's cultural values. 

The physical and economic risks of climate change, the need for emission mitigation policies and ‘green investments’, together with the economic opportunities offered by the ecological transition. The definition and origin of the concept of ‘cancel culture’, with particular reference to the United States, which can also be transposed to climate change.