Italian university honours English economist focusing on climate change

By Vatican News staff writer

Italy's Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore has given special recognition to an English economist for his innovative work in promoting economic policies and growth based on due attention to the huge impact climate change is having now and will continue to bear in the future.

At its primary campus in Milan, Sacro Cuore university officials awarded on Friday an honorary degree in Banking, Finance and Insurance to English economist, Lord Nicholas Herbert Stern, a professor at The London School of Economics and Political Science.

The English economist is author of a renowned report on the economic aspects of climate change and the urgent need to address the issue and factor it into current thinking and policies. Professor Stern's first key publication on the theme dates to October 2006 and became called the "Stern Review," a milestone report in addressing ecological issues and economics commissioned from the then British Finance Minister Gordon Brown.

The award ceremony for the honorary degree took place on Friday morning, followed by a Lectio magistralis by Professor Stern, entitled “Towards a new approach to development and growth: the economics of action on climate change.”

The University's faculty in July 2021 unanimously voted in favour of awarding the British economist the honorary degree as a "recognition of his profound knowledge as a scholar as well as the quality and relevance of his institutional activity and his commitment to a cause of the highest ethical value such as the response to climate change and its dramatic consequences for all of humanity, especially for the people in the poorest parts of the world".

The Catholic University of Sacro Cuore said the award is not only a sign of recognition for Professor Stern's important work, but also a way to promote sharing of research and policy projects in this field.

Lord Stern is a Professor of Economics and Government and Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His service has also included responsibilities as Chief Economist at both the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank, teaching at other UK and overseas universities, and the publication of over 15 books and 100 articles.