ECONOMICS

The teaching falls within the subjects of the common path of the master's degree course in Biotechnology for the environment and sustainable development, and has the aim of illustrating the fundamentals of the economy in general, those of the economy of the environment to the students. and the economic and regulatory aspects concerning the waste cycle and the water cycle.

The training targets are, in particular, to provide the basic tools for the knowledge of the economic and regulatory aspects concerning the management of environmental resources, and the knowledge inherent in the collection, transport, recovery or disposal of waste and wastewater. . Particular attention is paid to the aspects inherent to the tariff regulation of the waste and water cycle. Achieving these objectives allows the student to have the basis for learning how to manage process waste originating from the performance of human activities.

Attendance and active participation in the training activity proposed by the course (lectures), and individual study will allow students to:

1 Knowledge and understanding

1.1. The fundamental concepts the principles underlying the economics of the environment (Explain the fundamentals of the discipline and its origins, starting from the 1960s onwards)
1.2. The ecological limits to the economy of the environment (the environmental element as an external cost, the limits to the use of renewable and non-renewable resources, and the notion of terrestrial economy as a frontier economy)
1.3. The notion of extended economy (the balance of materials, the multifunctional nature of environmental resources, and the relationship between externalities and public goods).
1.4. Difference between the traditional economic approach and environmental economics
1.5. The definition of sustainable development (conditions, difference between weak and strong sustainability, measurement and proposals for indicators)
1.6. The notion of waste (and the definitions by-product, end of waste, and the exclusions from the notion)
1.7. The community and internal regulatory framework on waste (The principles underlying waste management, hierarchy of legal sources, the waste hierarchy, the definition of the integrated waste cycle, the competences of the public administration in terms of waste management, state planning, life cycle tracking, classification and environmental permitting)
1.8. Tariff regulation (waste tax and tariffs for urban sanitation services, eco-tax, and tariffs for delivery to treatment plants)

2 Ability to apply knowledge and understanding

2.1 knowing how to distinguish between circular and linear economy
2.2. know how to identify the differences between refusal and non-refusal, and the related methods of managing the former
2.3 know how to identify the determinants behind the tariff regulation concerning waste and waste water

3 Judgment skills

3.1. know how to identify the existence of ecological limits to the economy of the environment
3.2. know how to distinguish sustainable and non-sustainable economic development models
3.3. Knowing how to identify the determinants of sustainable development
3.4. know how to determine the suitable methodologies for valorising the residues of anthropic activities
3.5. knowing how to distinguish what is waste and what is not
3.6. knowing how to understand the role of public administrations in waste management

Knowledge of the fundamentals of economics is desirable, with reference to the ability to analyze economic phenomena in a systemic and critical key, or to be able, on the one hand, to formulate economic problems in structured and formalized terms, according to the analysis models theory most shared by economists, and on the other hand, identify the fields of applicability of these models and the value judgments underlying them and the consequent plurality of points of view in the description of economic phenomena. resumed and addressed along the course of the lessons.

Knowledge of the basic notions of law is desirable, and in particular it is considered necessary to have learned the concepts of law (as a phenomenon of significant importance that governs every moment of our life and the reality in which we live), norm (i.e. the requirements underlying the legal rules that make up the legal system itself), the sources of law (or any act or fact suitable for producing legal rules in a certain legal and social system), and legal system (i.e. the set of rules governing the organization and life of the State and of other human organizations having similar characteristics).

It is desirable, for the purpose of studying the economic and financial aspects related to the waste and water cycle, to possess basic notions of tax law, with reference to the notion of tax, tax, tax relationship.

A basic knowledge of the integrated cycle of waste and water is desirable, and in particular of the notions of collection, transport, recovery or disposal of solid or liquid waste.

With regard to the issues mentioned above, please note that they will, in any case, be resumed and addressed during the course of the lessons.

Therefore, the student who accesses this course already knows the fundamentals of economics, the basic notions of law, the economic and financial aspects related to the waste and water cycle, and basic knowledge of the related life cycles.

There are no mandatory prerequisites.

General Part - Environmental Economics

1. Introduction
2. Relationship between economy and environment
3. Environment and ethics
4. The limits to economic development
5. Economic growth and, population growth and the environment

Special part - The waste and water cycle

1. Notion of waste
2. Definition of the notion of waste
3. Reference regulatory framework
4. Tariff regulation in the waste and water cycle

Stefano Sassone, Waste Management for Companies, Citizens, Public Bodies, first Edition, 2021 (in press: publication expected: 15 September 2021)
Stefano Sassone, The environmental authorization procedures, What changes after the DL n. 77/2021, 2nd edition, 2021 (in press: publication scheduled: Friday 6 September 2021)

Verification of learning will take place through an oral test, articulated according to open questions posed by the teacher.

During the exam session, the student will be asked questions which will aim to ascertain knowledge of the topics illustrated and explained during the course of the lessons.
The following will be considered as final evaluation parameters: a) the way the scientific contents are presented; b) the acquisition of a formal language appropriate to the issues addressed; c) the acquisition of the skills transmitted.

The questions posed in the exam session will concern the general part of the course (fundamentals of environmental economics), and the special part (dedicated to the waste and water cycle), and will last between 15 and 20 minutes, in order to to find the correct learning of the concepts presented during the semester.

The course is divided into lectures.

Educational modules will be available on the e-learning platform of the university moodle Unive.

The didactic modules available on this platform constitute the essential core of the knowledge which will be required to be shown during the oral tests of the exam sessions, which will be supplemented by the contents reported in the proposed reference texts.

Italian

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Circular economy, innovation, work" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development