How can disaster recovery do more than simply restore what was lost? This question was central to ENPOWER’s contribution to the XXIV AISSEC Scientific Conference, under the theme “Economic Development in the Era of Geopolitical Fragmentation”, held at UNIVPM in Ancona. The conference brought together researchers and practitioners to explore economic development in a context shaped by geopolitical fragmentation, climate change, digitalisation, technological transformation and growing socio-economic challenges.
Representing the University of Macerata, Davide Di Marcoberardino presented ENPOWER’s perspective on the relationship between disaster recovery, resilience and energy poverty, focusing particularly on the recovery process following an earthquake.
Traditional disaster recovery often focuses on restoring infrastructure and services to their pre-disaster condition. However, reconstruction can also provide an opportunity to address weaknesses that existed before the disaster and create a more resilient future. more resilient future. This idea is sometimes described as a potential “blessing in disguise”: although a disaster causes major disruption and losses, the recovery process can, under the right conditions, generate long-term improvements that would have been difficult to achieve otherwise. The presentation connected this idea with the Build Back Better approach. Rather than simply rebuilding what was there before, BBB seeks to improve resilience through reconstruction, strengthening infrastructure and reducing exposure to future risks.
The AISSEC presentation therefore added an important resilience perspective to ENPOWER’s work. Disasters can deepen existing inequalities and increase energy vulnerability, but recovery can also create opportunities to improve infrastructure, strengthen energy efficiency and reduce long-term exposure to risk. For ENPOWER, this reinforces the wider principle that the energy transition should not only make systems cleaner and more efficient, but also more resilient and fair.
