MY SPEECH AT THE RECENT FORUM "SOCIAL ECONOMY IN THE DIGITAL AREA" AND THE NEED TO ALSO STRATEGIZE AND CONSIDER THE CLIMATE CHANGES RISK MITIGATION

MY SPEECH AT THE RECENT CONFERENCE "SOCIAL ECONOMY IN THE DIGITAL ERA" ON THE NEED TO ACHIEVE A SYNERGY AND A JOINT STRATEGY OF GOVERNMENTAL ACTION BETWEEN THE POLICIES IN THE FIELDS OF THE SOCIAL ECONOMY AND DIGITALIZATION AND THE POLICY REGARDING THE MITIGATION OF THE RISKS GENERATED BY CLIMATE CHANGE AND ADAPTATION TO THEM. ALONG WITH THE IDEAS OF THE SPEECH, I AM ADDING OTHER SUGGESTIONS AND STRATEGIC IDEAS TO THIS POST.

On October 10th I had the pleasure to be invited to attend the conference "SOCIAL ECONOMY IN THE DIGITAL ERA" a very interesting and insightful event organized by the "Smart City Romanian Association" at the SENATE OF the Romanian Parliament, Bucharest. Romania!

?n my speech I stated the following ideas:

The social economy and digitalization are essential components of government strategies and policies aimed at the progress and development of a nation. These two components, along with all the other components of the economy (agriculture, industry, aquaculture, constructions, architecture, etc) must be developed on a sustainable basis, which does not affect the environment, but also correlated and integrated with the strategies, policies, programs and actions aimed at combating the pollution that generates global warming and devastating climate changes.

A synergy between these three areas is needed to ensure the success of governmental economic, social and environmental strategies, policies, programs and actions.

The social economy and digitization are essential components of government strategies and policies aimed at the development of a nation. Along with them must be correlated and integrated programs and actions aimed at both the need for the social economy and digitization to be developed on a sustainable basis, which does not affect the environment, as well as the need to combat the pollution that generates global warming and devastating climate changes.

A synergy between these three areas is needed to ensure the success of economic, social and environmental policies.

Besides these ideas I would like to also mention the fact that for several years we have been facing extremely severe climatic events, with devastating effects both on the population and on all economic sectors. The reality is that climate change can seriously affect both the social economy and digitalization.

For example, there is the risk of extremely severe climatic events such as storms, floods, landslides, fires, etc., which can lead not only to loss of human life, but also to material damage. And so on but also to the destruction of essential elements of national security and the well-being of the population such as hydrological dams, telecommunications systems (telephone, internet, oil and gas pipelines, the national energy system, electricity distribution networks, etc.) which can seriously affect the network of hospitals, the health system, schools and universities in the education system, the activity of banks and that of production and services of companies, etc.

For too many years we are facing EXTREMELY SEVERE EFFECTS of CLIMATE CHANGE generated by the GLOBAL WARMING induced by humans through the IRRESPONSIBLE & CONTINUOUS POLLUTION OF AIR, LAND AND RIVERS, LAKES, SEAS & OCEANS!!!

Heatwaves, forest fires, droughts, desertification, floods, landslides, atmospheric rivers rainfall, polar sheet and mountain glaciers melting, sea & ocean level rise, ozone layer depletion are DIRECT TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF THE POLLUTION MADE BY HUMANS WHO ARE SHOWING A TOTAL LACK OF WISDOM AND AND RESPECT TOWARDS PLANET TERRA, THE MOTHER NATURE WHO WAS AND STILL IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE ON THIS CELESTIAL TINY SPOT THAT TRAVELS WITHIN THE NEVERENDING AND EVERLASTING INFINITE COSMOS!

In 2022 one of the main European rivers the Danube almost dried out completely negatively affecting theivelihood and the economic fishing, shipping and tourist activities.

The 2023 summer months (June, July, August) were the hottest in the history of meteorological measurements!!! Recently we already reached a 1,2 °C Global warming increase compared to the pre-industraial levels!! There's only 0,3 °C left to reach the terrible threshold of 1,5°C increase!! The worrying thing is that the respective threshold was already briefly passed for the month of July 2023 during the Northern summer.!

Almost all of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are off-track, far behind their annual targets!!!

In 2023 the Earth Overshoot Day was reached on August 2 marking the date when humanity has exhausted nature's budget for the current year!!!

The European continent is the fastest warming compared to the other continents! We would need at least three planets if everyone lived and consumed like the average European today!!

A recent study in Science Advances warned that human activities have caused planet Terra to exceed six of nine boundaries needed to keep our Earth healthy, pushing the environment “well outside the safe operating space for humanity".

Planet Earth’s ability to sustain human life a d society depends on nine essential “planetary boundaries,” or global systems representing key indicators of its health. Six out of these nine boundaries have been crossed due to humans' activities: climate change, biosphere integrity (which includes biodiversity), freshwater availability, land use, nutrient pollution and novel entities (meaning human-made pollution, such as microplastics and radioactive waste). Only three such boundries were still not affected: ocean acidification, air pollution and ozone depletion.

Besides that the digital economy itsself has a certain carbon footprint. negativelly affecting the environment. According to a very recent study on digital footprints (conducted by Australian digital agency WongDoody) the news websites emit more CO2 than expected.

The analysis, found that, on average, these websites produce 84 tonnes of CO2 annually due to their design and web traffic volumes.

The agency assessed the top 10 most visited news sites in Australia, including The ABC, AFR, The Guardian and The Australian.

Global news sites, like the Daily Mail, were also included for comparison and were found to average a massive 316 tonnes of CO2 each year, resulting from substantial web traffic.

This large figure was calculated following the analysis of various factors that impact a website's carbon emissions, such as the use of imagery, fonts, ad tracking, auto-play videos and forced scrolls.

The calculations suggest that the average news site in Australia clocks up the equivalent CO2 of nine one-way flights from Sydney to LAX a year.

Understanding the carbon cost of digital activities is crucial in a world increasingly operating online.

Currently, digital operations, like websites and online services, contribute to around 3.7% of global emissions. (https://www.google.com/amp/s/itbrief.com.au/amp/story/digital-footprints-news-sites-emit-more-co2-than-expected)

On the other hand studies have revealed the environmental impact of storing data on the computer hard drives and and on data centers ( cloud storage services)

In order to sae data to the cloud we need energy to elecyronically transport it to the data center through miles of fiber optic cables, studded with other fixtures of internet infrastructure all requiring power along the way. At the data center, the respective data is stored on hard disks that uses permanently power for their safe maintainance and this creates a lot of heat, which necessitates energy-intensive air conditioners to protect the equipment from overheating.

"A Carnegie Mellon University study concluded that the energy cost of data transfer and storage is about 7 kWh per gigabyte. An assessment at a conference of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy reached a lower number: 3.1 kWh per gigabyte. (A gigabyte is enough data to save a few hundred high-resolution photos or an hour of video.)

Compared with a personal hard disk, which requires about 0.000005 kWh per gigabyte to save data, this is a huge amount of energy. Saving and storing 100 gigabytes of data in the cloud per year would result in a carbon footprint of about 0.2 tons of CO2, based on the usual U.S. electric mix.

Cloud data storage provides convenience, not to mention the peace of mind of a secure backup. But you can keep these numbers in mind as you decide whether to save data locally or to the cloud. And, if you have a choice of cloud service providers, do some sustainability research. Some providers power their data centers with 100 percent renewable energy...." (https://medium.com/stanford-magazine/carbon-and-the-cloud-d6f481b79dfe)

On top of all these FACTUAL REALITIES we are facing another TERRIBLE THREAT: the DISINFORMATION / MANIPULATION / FAKE NEWS THAT DENIES THE EXISTENCE OF POLLUTION, GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE to which we should add the DANGERS OF GREENWASHING / WINDOW-DRESSING THE COMPANIES'S FINANCIAL STATEMENTS as well as the one of the FAKE TECHNOLOGIES claiming they are fully green, decarbonized!!

In my opinion WE NEED TO HAVE A NEW, THE 18TH, ONE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL: COMBATING FINANCIAL AND RISK REPORTING GREENWASHING AND DISINFORMATION THAT DENIES THE EXISTENCE OF POLLUTION, GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGES!

In addition to all the above there is an ABSOLUTE NEED for the government authorities to stop the shameless abuse of the energy producing companies who speculated on the legislative errors and set the prices of electricity and gas by adopting the maximum ceilings provided in the legal regulations, while their cost of production it basically remained at a relatively low level of existing before the pandemic. These prices have obviously generated not only PERSISTENT hyperinflation but also the SHARP INCREASE IN STATE BUDGET EXPENDITURES determined by subsidies granted to cover the energy bills. In addition, due to the increase in operating and production costs generated by high, abusive energy prices, many SMEs and other companies have gone bankrupt and laid off employees, thus generating increased government spending on unemployment benefits.

Thus, the THE STATE BUDGET DEFICIT WORSENED because, on the one hand, THE BUDGET EXPENDITURES INCREASED due to the high volume of payment of subsidies to energy bills, due to an increased budgetary energy expenditures of state institutions (government, ministries, hospitals, schools, universities, etc.) due to increased unemployment benefits expenses and, AT THE SAME TIME, THE BUDGET REVENUES DECREASED due to reduced income from profit and salary taxes caused by the bankruptcy of companies and employees lay-off. At the same time, budget revenues also decreased due to the exorbitant increase in food prices, which led to a REDUCTION IN POPULATION'S CONSUMPTION and IMPLIEDLY, REDUCTION IN STATE REVENUE FROM VAT COLLECTION.

The current crisis generated by the huge UNJUSTIFIED high price of energy affects and will affect NEGATIVELY the financing of the government's strategies, programs and policies in ALL economic fields, including those related to the social economy, digitalization and the fight against pollution, global warming and climate changes

CONCLUSIONS

IN ORDER TO BRING BACK ON TRACK THE SDGs AND TO KEEP THE GLOBSL WARMING BELOW THE 1 5°C INCREASE COMPARED TO PREIDUSTRIAL LEVELSWE NEED TO CREATE A SINERGY BETWEEN THE GOALS OF SOCIAL ECONOMY, DIGITALIZATION AND THE GOAL OF CLIMATE CHANGE RISK MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION.

At the same time, it is IMPERATIVELY NECESSARY for the government authorities to STOP THE ABUSE OF THE HUGE PRICES OF ELECTRICITY, GAS, ETC. CHARGED WITHOUT ANY SCRUPLE BY THE ENERGY PRODUCING COMPANIES!

My congratulations and thanks to the organizer of this excellent forum - the Smart City Romanian Association and its sponsors, to whom I suggest that the future conference they will organize should have as its theme "The best practices and solutions for "Green / blue city" and the best practices and strategic solutions in the field of risk management generated by climate change. Climate change risk management and finance best practices strategic solutions"

George Florin Staicu

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) - Eastern Europe Coordinating Lead Author for the Global Environment Outlook (GEO7) report 7th edition (https://lnkd.in/dtD8FaVi);

Global Ambassador of Sustainability - initiative - partnership UNESCO, UN Habitat and American University of Dubai - https://lnkd.in/dxaSfHaY

Sustainable Procurement Ambassador at the Sustainable Procurement Pledge.

https://spp.earth/spp-ambassadors/georgeflorin/profile/

https://lnkd.in/dCtduKem

Member of the International Finance Corporation - Grow Learn Connect Directory of Training Professionals; USAID banking scholarship recipient;

Participant to the UNEP GEO7 conference in Shanghai, China: 4 - 7 Sept 2023 - https://lnkd.in/dJWwHnAq

Participant and speaker to the at the conference "The social economy in the digital era", Bucharest, Romania

Independent banking, microfinance, SME lending, GRC, CSR, ESG, GRC, UN SDGs, EU Taxonomy & Green Deal, nature-based infrastructure solutions, circular economy, green - blue inclusive sustainable development & finance, IFRS-ISSB, UNEP FI TCFD TNFD & PRB, EFRAG, GRI, CDP, ASCOR, Net-Zero Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and ISO reporting standards, blended finance, Fintech & Ecotech promoter, Public-Private Partnership promoter, gender equality, social performance, learning & development, strategic planning, risk management, team leader, senior project manager, consultant, trainer and business coach

Member of the International Finance Corporation - Grow Learn Connect "Directory of Training Professionals" (https://lnkd.in/dwPhDdqF)

Signatory of the International Finance Corporation - GLC Principles for Learning (https://lnkd.in/e7rkAn6)

Member of the Professional Risk Managers' International Association - PRMIA

Member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals

Graduate of the Reuters' digital journalism training course - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/glad-proud-receive-diploma-awarded-prestigious-press-company-staicu/

Graduate of a 2022 post-university training course "Nature-based infrastructure for climate adaptation and sustainable development" offered by the Nature Based Infrastructure Resource Centre (NBI RC), International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) , the MAVA Foundation and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) - https://lnkd.in/dhsVViKZ

Member of the Green Forum managed by the Green Growth Knowledge Partnership led by the Global Green Growth Institute, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, UN Environment Programme, United Nations Industrial Organization and The World Bank Group. - https://lnkd.in/dnecxuDb

Expert and Mentor at the "Anticorruption Solutions Through Emerging Technologies" (ASET) Tech Sprint project (June 10 - 24, 2022) a partnership between the Alliance for Innovative Regulation, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes - TechSprint selection as expert: https://lnkd.in/d5hWtNpD - TechSprint diploma:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/georgestaicuromaniaconsult_activity-6946525169620246528-I4CN?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

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Member of UpLink, the open innovation platform of the World Economic Forum - https://lnkd.in/dPCP4iaK

Post-university graduate of the Siena International School on the 2022 Sustainable Development training course "Challenges and solutions of decarbonization" - Online Webinars sponsored by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development; Santa Chiara Lab – University of Siena; Enel Foundation; the Italian University Network for Sustainable Development and the SDSN Europe - https://lnkd.in/eMcHGuNG

Writer on the International Finance Corporation's Grow Learn Connect Blog - https://lnkd.in/ewYTAm4N

Content managing editor, founder, owner and administrator of the LinkedIn group "Best practices in SDGs, ESG, CLEAN ENERGY, CIRCULAR ECONOMY, GREEN / BLUE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT" https://lnkd.in/evunwuN4

Content managing editor, founder, owner and administrator of the LinkedIn group "Microfinance Best Practices" https://lnkd.in/eV4ZbihH

Member of the Social Performance Task Force standards projects - responsible finance - https://lnkd.in/eWZgrY8k

Member of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Group (https://lnkd.in/eRvCzun7)

and

Member of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) DGROUPS - https://lnkd.in/eWGP_NSR