Late, without coverage and too «soft»:Italy's plan for adapting to climate change does not satisfy anyone

Six years after the first draft, the government has finally approved the Pnacc.But the document received a lukewarm reception from the main environmental groups

After six long years from the first draft and the succession of four governments, Italy finally has a National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (Pnacc).This is a document considered essential to plan policies to combat the impacts of the climate crisis, both at a local and national level.The plan presented this week by the Ministry of the Environment is about a hundred pages long and lists 361 actions that will need to be undertaken in the coming years.There's just one problem:of these measures indicated by the government, just 5 have the costs reported in detail.For all other measures, with the exception of 13 indicated as "zero cost", please refer to other documents or generic formulas:«Costs not known», «No useful information known on the subject» or «To be evaluated».A detail that has not escaped the attention of the main environmental associations, who have been waiting for the publication of the plan for years and are now asking that the economic resources necessary to make it truly operational be immediately allocated.

What is Pnacc

The Pnacc published by the government serves to outline a national strategy for "the implementation of actions aimed at minimizing the risks deriving from climate change".A particularly sensitive issue for Italy, which - as recognized in the Mase document - is located in a climate "hotspot".This means that our country is in a particularly vulnerable position, which exposes us to natural risks, rising temperatures and intensification of extreme weather events, with all that this entails on an economic, social and environmental level.The Pnacc, therefore, can be seen as a sort of survival manual, which provides a series of indications on how one can prepare to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.Not only that:the document should also include indications on how to "take advantage of any opportunities that may arise with the new climatic conditions".

The sectors involved

Taking into consideration three different hypotheses of how emissions will change between now and the next few decades, the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan identifies 361 measures that need to be implemented.These actions are divided into 18 sectors:agriculture, energy, transport, hydrogeological instability, water resources, forests and more.In most cases, these are very general actions.For agriculture, for example, it is suggested, among other things, to prefer techniques with low environmental impact and to irrigate using precision systems.For hydrogeological instability, the advice is to improve monitoring of the areas most at risk and plan public spending for safety.Or again:for water resources the indication is to reconsider the concessions, redevelop the waterways and introduce measures to rationalize consumption.

«Soft» solutions against hydrogeological instability

In terms of operation, the document drawn up by the government divides all these actions into three categories:soft, green and grey.Soft actions, we read in the document, "are those that do not require direct structural and material interventions but which are nevertheless preparatory to the implementation of the latter".In other words, these are research initiatives, data monitoring, legislative changes, governance changes and so on.«Non-soft» actions are divided into two colours:green (green) and gray (grey).Those are the green actions nature-based, i.e. based on nature.Green ones, on the other hand, are material actions that concern the improvement or adaptation of systems, technologies and infrastructures.Of the 361 actions identified by the ministry, the vast majority (76%) are soft, i.e. non-structural.The remaining 87 are divided into 46 green and 41 gray sizes.The section dedicated to hydrogeological instability, which has long been one of the most ignored plagues in Italy, is striking.According to the most recent data from Ispra, almost 94% of Italian municipalities are at risk from landslides, floods or coastal erosion.Yet, all 29 actions indicated in the Pnacc to respond to this situation fall into the "soft" category.

The disappointment of environmentalists

Between the lack of economic coverage and generic indications, it is not surprising that the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change has received a lukewarm reception from the main environmental associations.The WWF accuses the government of not having taken "clear and courageous decisions" and underlines the "poor and inadequate identification of things to do and how to finance them". Enrico Giovannini, former minister during the Draghi government and now scientific director of Asvis, focuses instead on the economic aspect.«The Pnacc does not benefit from specific financial resources:for this reason, we urgently need to evaluate whether and how the investments envisaged by the Pnrr or those financed by other instruments, such as the European and national cohesion funds, can contribute to the implementation of the Plan".Legambiente is even more explicit, asking the government to allocate "the necessary economic resources immediately".In 2023, Italy registered an increase 22% of extreme weather events compared to the previous year.And for the flood damage in Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany alone, the government had to spend 11 billion euros.Resources which - points out Stefano Ciafani, president of Legambiente - "could have been partly saved with prevention campaigns and adaptation actions carried out in time".

Cover photo:ANSA/Emanuele Valeri | Aerial view of a house surrounded by mud after the floods of May 2023 in Emilia Romagna