Environmental Challenges

141 Pages·2009·3.57 MB·English

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Environmental Challenges
Summary of the State of the Environment in Italy
ISBN 88-87728-07 0 2009
Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea Environmental Challenges Summary of the State of the Environment in Italy 2009
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Environmental Challenges
Summary of the State of the Environment in Italy
Presented by Hon. Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo
on the occasion of the G8 Environment Ministers Meeting
(Siracusa, April 22-24, 2009)
2009
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MINISTRY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, LAND AND SEA
Directorate General for Development and Environmental Research
ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
Summary of the State of the Environment in Italy
2009
ISBN 88-87728-07 0
Information and data dissemination is permitted,
provided that sources are indicated.
Full text is available on the website www.minambiente.it
Editors: Paolo Soprano, Claudia Terzani
Graphic layout: Studio Vitale
Printed by RC Data Design - Rome
The document has been issued in cooperation with
the National Research Council (CNR), Air Pollution Institute
Rome – March 2009
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Environmental Challenges
The great environmental challenge – both at national and global level – should definitely be considered by our
society as a key issue for development, a criterion to measure overall policies, a keystone to plan development
that cannot be other than “sustainable”.
Nowadays, environmental sustainability is rapidly overlapping with economic sustainability, especially in
countries like Italy depending nearly completely on foreing energy supply conditional not only on import security
but also on the price fossil fuels.
A deep change in the economic and environmental culture is therefore necessary, rather than convenient,
leaving behind us the mere economic vision considering the environment only as a cost, and adopting a new
perspective where environmentalism is an integral part of development policies, and the environment is the
resource, the basis and the central issue for development of future society.
The concept of environment hampering development is part of an obsolete cultural heritage that has to be
replaced by a wider vision able to couple environment and development, without neglecting environmental
protection.
In our country, environment represents for sure the largest intangible infrastructure, a large resource to draw
on, and it is our task to safeguard it through eco-sustainable development models. The challenge to be
accepted therefore, as a part of the biggest challenge humankind is facing today, is to be able to live on our
Planet with steadily increasing population in a decent and equitable way, without destroying the ecosystems
that provide us resources to live on. This unprecedented challenge should be included in the agenda of all
governments and should be the crucial target of the international community.
It is therefore necessary to convert the economy in a sustainable way, by organizing government environmental
strategies according to a new philosophy, to reverse market economy trends, to protect land and human health
integrity, and to allow at the same time environment to orientate the global economy.
The serious international economic crisis already required - and will require, both in the short- and long-term
- considerable investments to maintain the high growth and socio-economic security levels attained so far
also for the future. This huge effort however, also represents an opportunity to change the economic relations
system, so as to promote sustainable growth in the long-term and enable the economic and financial system
to face the environmental challenge by fully integrating environment and economy.
Within this scenario, the Ministry of Environment intends to take this great responsibility upon itself and play
a guarantee role, thus becoming the main actor of the country’s development policy planning.
The Summary of the State of the Environment in Italy, presented on the occasion of the G8 Environment
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Ministers Meeting that I am honoured to host and to chair, therefore becomes a starting point of strategic
importance to give renewed momentum to environmental policy in Italy.
Today, climate change and global warming are the most difficult issues at global level; UNFCCC country parties’
response to the risks deriving from the introduction of climate-altering gases in the atmosphere is the measure
of their capacity to take the necessary decisions, so as to start implementing an effective and eco-sustainable
policy. Since this problem relates to nearly all human activities, it does not only impact our productive and
industrial systems, but also directly affects our transport system, our urban setup and lifestyles, agriculture
and biodiversity, water availability and land safety. For this reason, we must act on several levers which involve
comprehensively our socio-economic organization.
We must therefore continue and incentivize support to production of renewable energy, from solar to
geothermal energy, from wind power to biomass energy, from waste recycling to hydroelectric energy, also
favouring the use of new technologies to capture and store CO2.
Future technologies represent the economic bet to gain global leadership in the energy field in the next
decades. By promoting and strengthening the industrial sector and supporting technological innovation, by
adopting already available new techniques that allow sustainable use of natural resources and emissions
reduction, it will be possible to look trustfully into the future, being sure that accepting the great challenge of
sustainable industrial and energy development will allow us to keep on being competitive on international
markets.
At the same time, new lifestyles should be promoted and our cities should be rethought together with local
authorities, incentivizing the attainment of air quality standards, privileging an integrated approach in urban
development policy, and the starting up of efficient energy saving policy and energy use.
Within this framework, cooperation and objective-sharing between central institutions and local authorities,
as well as exchanging of good practices and experiences and profitable use of achieved results will be crucial.
The Ministry for the Environment should become the laboratory of a new environmental deal among the
national government, local and regional institutions and the citizens, built on the principle of sustainable
resource use, by acknowledging the founding role of education, information, training and dissemination of self-
responsibility principles to give birth to a new environmental consciousness.
Stefania Prestigiacomo
Minister for the Environment, Land and Sea
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Acknowledgments
The 2008 Environmental Data Yearbook – Key topics by ISPRA - Institute for Environmental
Protection and Research has been the main data and information source for this publication.
Editorial staff: Paolo Soprano, Claudia Terzani, Antonella Arduini, Claudio Baffioni, Daniela Danieli,
Bruna De Amicis, Francesca De Lucia, Eugenio Dupré, Elio Manti, Pierluigi Manzione, Francesca
Papini, Patrizia Pennazza, Stefania Persia, Giorgio Pineschi, Aldo Ravazzi, Elide Steffan, Nicoletta
Tartaglino, Moira Zuccaro.
Contributors: Corrado Abbate, Roberto Aceto, Alessandro Baldacci, Stefano Bataloni, Silvia
Bartoletti, Alessandra Benucci, Alessandro Beulcke, Eleonora Bianco, Eugenie Bisulco, Patrizia
Bonanni, Massimo Briani, Silvia Brini, Giovanni Brunelli, Rita Calicchia, Anna Maria Caricchia, Elio
Carlo, Carlo Carminucci, Giorgio Cattani, Franco Cautilli, Paolo Cecchetti, Renato Ciaralli, Mario
Contaldi, Cesare Costantino, Sergio Cristofanelli, Riccardo De Lauretis, Franco De Siato, Irene Di
Girolamo, Patrizia Esposito, Alessandro Di Menno di Bucchianico, Aldo Femia, Georg Josef Frisch,
Valeria Frittelloni, Alessandra Gaeta, Giuseppe Gandolfo, Giuliana Gasparrini, Domenico Gaudioso,
Maria Concetta Giunta, Silvia Granata, Andrea Innamorati, Sergio La Motta, Andrea Massimiliano
Lanz, Rosanna Laraia, Massimo Lepri, Maria Antonietta Liverani, Gerardo Marletto,Arrigo Martinis,
Sabina Massarelli, Luisa Mazzullo, Chiara Morbidini, Erminia Moreschini, Federica Moricci,
Pierpaolo Orrico, Fabio Pace, Daniela Pasella, Tullia Passerini, Luca Piatto, Daniele Piccarozzi,
Emidio Piccione, Massimo Proietti, Claudio Rapicetta, Federica Rolle, Gianni Romagnoli, Gianfranco
Romano, Giovanna Rossi, Angelo Federico Santini, Francesco Senni, Riccardo Simone, Viviana
Spadoni, Emanuela Sterpa, Antonio Strambaci Scarcia, Emilio Tassoni, Vanessa Tedeschi, Stefano
Tersigli, Cristina Tombolini, Giuseppe Tranne, Luca Trepidi,Angelica Tudini,Antonio Venditti, Giovanni
Zacchi, Alessandro Zollo.
Contributions have been prepared by the statistic office and the directorates of the Ministry for
the Environment, Land and Sea: Directorate General for Soil Protection, Directorate General for
Nature Protection, Directorate General for Quality of Life, Directorate General for Development and
Environmental Research, Directorate General for Environmental Protection.
Contributions have been prepared also by other Ministries, namely: the Ministry of Labour, Health
and Social Policies; the Ministry of Economy and Finance; the Ministry of Infrastructures and
Trasport; the Ministry of Education, University and Research; the Ministry of Agriculture, Food
and Forestry Policies; the Ministry of Economic Development.
The Directorate General for Development and Environmental Research also made use of data
and information issued or available on-line of numerous institutions and organizations: ACI,
International Energy Agency (IEA), European Environment Agency (EEA), Regional Agency for Internal
navigation - Emilia Romagna, Environment and Mobility Agency - Roma,Authority for Electricity and
Gas,World Bank, CNN, UNESCO National Italian Commission, CONAI,Vigilance Committee for Water
Resources Use (COVIRI), ENEA, ENEL, EUROSTAT, FEEM, Foundation for the Promotion of Corporate
Social Responsibility, Clinton Foundation, INU, INEA, IPCC, ISFORT, ISTAT, Tagliacarne Institute,
OECD, PriceWaterhouseCooper, Province of Cremona, Sincert, TERNA, United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
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Index
Foreword XI
Climate Change and Energy 1
Transport and Mobility 19
Industrial Production and Innovation 37
Waste Management 49
Management of Natural Resources and Soil 68
Air 69
Water 77
Biodiversity 87
Soil use 91
Cross-cutting Instruments for Environmental Policy 102
Economic instruments 103
Eco-innovation and environmental research 119
Environmental education and information 123
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Foreword
National governments all over the world are facing the challenge of the hugest economic crisis since many
decades, to find solutions that may allow developed countries to maintain the welfare level attained so far, and
developing countries to keep relying on solidarity and cooperation from donors for many years to come. Within
this framework, the economic role of environmental protection as a driving engine for development becomes
increasingly clear.
Environmental impacts linked to the prevailing development patterns have produced and still produce “hidden
costs” that seriously affect natural and energy resources, both in terms of exhaustion and degradation, as well
as in terms of expenditures to be met in order to support actions for the restoration and safeguard of environmental
quality.
The shortage of natural, environmental and energy resources and the risk of their further depletion induce to
adopt efficiency and innovation as reference criteria for economic growth, so as to “decouple” development and
resource use.
The present Summary of the State of the Environment in Italy offers information and interpretative “keys” to
update the strategy for sustainable development in our country, in the light of the global economic crisis, and to
adapt environmental governance, so as to meet the increasingly demanding challenge of efficient management
of water resources, biodiversity and energy that are in fact the reference “pillars” for policies and measures of
mitigation and adaptation to global climate change.
Corrado Clini
Director General for Development
and Environmental Research
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