Professor Lorenzo Fioramonti
About
Biography
I am the Founding Director of the Institute for Sustainability at the University of Surrey and a former member of Parliament and Minister of Education, University and Research in Italy. I am passionate about sustainability education and research and my books include: Wellbeing Economy: Success in a World Without Growth (MacMillan 2017) and The World After GDP: Economics, Politics and International Relations in the Post-Growth Era (Polity 2017), which have been featured – among others - by Bloomberg and the Financial Times. My opinion pieces have been published by The New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Harvard Business Review, TruthOut, Die Presse, The Conversation, Das Parlament, Der Freitag, The Mail & Guardian, Business Day and www.opendemocracy.net. I am a member of the Club of Rome (a leading international institution dedicated to rethinking growth through a wellbeing lens) and the Co-chair of Surrey County Council's Greener Futures Board. I am also a sought-after public speaker on issues regarding sustainable wellbeing, governance innovation and purpose-driven business. If you want to know more, my personal website is www.lorenzofioramonti.org.
News
In the media
Publications
The visitor economy is responsible for a substantial percentage of the global carbon footprint. The mechanisms used to decarbonize it are insufficient, and the industry is relying on carbon trading with substandard credits that allow businesses to outsource the responsibility to decarbonize. We aim to transform carbon markets, help finance climate investments, and support decarbonization strategies. We identify and define the problem, outline the components and their interactions, and develop a conceptual model to transform carbon markets. The new, blockchain-based Carbon Tokenomics Model rolls out a decentralized database to store, trade, and manage carbon credits, with the goal of enabling sustainable climate finance investment. We outline the criteria needed for an industry-wide carbon calculator. We explain the process needed to increase rigor in climate investments in the visitor economy and introduce a delegated Proof of Commitment consensus mechanism. Our inclusive and transparent model illustrates how to reduce transaction costs and how to build consumer and industry trust, generating much-needed investments for decarbonization.
Additional publications
Fioramonti, L., Coscieme, L. et al. (2022) ‘Wellbeing Economy: An Effective Paradigm to Mainstream Post-Growth Policies?’, Ecological Economics, 192 (2022): 107261.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107261
Laurent, E. , Galli, A., Battaglia, F., Dalla Libera Marchiori, G. and Fioramonti, L. (2022) ‘Toward Health-Environment Policy: Beyond the Rome Declaration’, Global Environmental Change, 72 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102418
Barnard, P., Moomaw, W.R., Fioramonti, L. et al. (2021) ‘World Scientists’ Warning Into Action, Local to Global’, Science Progress, 104 (4): 1-32.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00368504211056290
Fioramonti, L., Giordano, C. and Basile, F.L. (2021) ‘Fostering Academic Interdisciplinarity: Italy’s Pioneering Experiment on Sustainability Education in Schools and Universities’, Frontiers in Sustainability, 2: 63160. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2021.631610