2016-05-26

Considering the fact that Mr. Alessandro COSTA has been devoted to Sino-Italian, and Sino-European cooperation for many years and has made remarkable achievements, Chairman ZHANG Yi has signed the paper to appoint Mr. Alessandro COSTA as Senior Advisor to EU-China Municipal Development Commission with the approval from the Board of Directors. Mr. Alessandro COSTA will be engaged in the work of promoting the cultural exchange, economic cooperation and sci-tech innovation between Europe and China with a view to furthering the partnership of municipal development between EU Member States and China.

Mr. ZHANG Yi and Mr. Alessandro COSTA

Mr. Alessandro COSTA

Annex:

Alessandro Costa

Born in Venice in 1970, he holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science at the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, with a research on sustainable urban development and on the environmental impact of hallmark events (i.e. Sydney 2000 Olympic Games).

Between 1999 and 2004, he worked as a researcher in sustainable urban development and regional sciences at the Venice branch of the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (www.feem.it).

During the following six years (2004-10), he served in China as project supervisor and expert at the Sino-Italian Cooperation Programme (SICP) for Environmental Protection (www.sinoitaenvironment.org), jointly promoted by the Italian Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea and the Chinese Ministry for Environmental Protection. At SICP, he was responsible for the following cooperation areas: sustainable urban development and low-carbon cities, energy policies & studies, higher institutional education, and relations with universities and think-tanks.

In 2010 and 2011, in Beijing, in his capacity as European Co–Director, he started-up and operated the Europe-China Clean Energy Centre - EC2 (www.ec2.org.cn), a cooperation centre for technology transfer, policy assistance, institutional training and dissemination on clean energy, jointly promoted by the European Commission and the National Energy Administration of China. EC2 is a 5-year long EuropeAid-funded project started in year 2010 and managed by an international consortium led by the Politecnico di Torino.

From October 2011 to April 2015 he first started-up, then designed and directed the activities of the Enel Foundation (www.enelfoundation.org), a non-for-profit entity entirely funded by the Enel Group and devoted to research, institutional capacity building and dissemination in the fields of energy, socioeconomics, sustainable development (including low-carbon cities) and innovation. Under his directorship, the Enel Foundation collaborated with over 60 institutions, being academies (e.g. Harvard University, MIT, Columbia University, LSE, University of Cambridge, Tsinghua University, Rotterdam Erasmus University, Comillas University, Bocconi University, Politecnico di Milano) or other entities (e.g. IEA, UN-Habitat, UN-PRiME, Union for the Mediterranean, MedReg, the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea), carrying out around 70 projects in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa.

Since October 2013, he is a member of the World Energy Council's Studies Committee (www.worldenergy.org).

Since June 2015 he is responsible for Strategic Development and International Cooperation at Venice International University (www.univiu.org), a global association of 15 universities based in Venice (I) and devoted to education and research on global issues (such as sustainable development, globalization of economy, innovation, ageing, heritage conservation, urban development, and low-carbon economy).

In April 2016 he was nominated Head of Sustainable Energy at the European Energy Review (www.europeanenergyreview.eu).