Italy adopts climate change adaptation plan, but without funding

In Italy the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change has been approved.It took almost seven years and four governments, but in the end the Bel Paese also equipped itself with an indispensable tool for address the consequences of the climate crisis.The news of the approval was given by the Ministry of the Environment itself, explaining that the main objective of the Floor is to "provide a national framework for the implementation of actions aimed at reducing the risks deriving from climate change to the minimum possible, improving the adaptive capacity of socio-economic and natural systems, as well as taking advantage of any opportunities that arise will be able to present themselves with the new climatic conditions".The text was therefore officially adopted, albeit with a delay, but whether it is actually implemented is a different matter.The risk is that the Strategy you just stay on paper.For the moment, in fact, few of the planned actions have a corresponding financing item.

Italy was the last of the large European economies not to have the Plan.The strategy, as implemented, provides 361 measures to be adopted on a national and regional scale, which affect numerous sectors:from agriculture to energy through tourism, forests, urban settlements and aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.The actions were also distinguished based on the commitment required for their subsequent implementation.Therefore, there are "soft" actions, which do not require direct structural and material interventions, and "non-soft" actions.The latter are then divided into two further types:"green" actions which require material interventions that affect natural resources and "grey" actions which instead imply the construction of new plants and infrastructures.A first criticism made by environmentalist organizations is that the vast majority of actions, almost 70%, falls into the "soft" category, despite the need for profound structural interventions having been repeatedly underlined.Among other things, the Plan itself certifies the high vulnerability of the country to the climate crisis.Italy – we read in the text – boasts the sad record of the economic value of the losses suffered in the EU over the last 40 years due to extreme weather events.

However, the funding needed to follow up on the Adaptation Strategy is currently lacking.«We remind the Minister of the Environment and the Meloni Government that to implement the Plan it will be essential to allocate the necessary economic resources which are currently still absent, not even foreseen in the latest Budget law», commented Stefano Ciafani, president of Legambiente.By the way, wait a little longer It's not at all cost-free.In the last year, extreme weather events linked to global warming have grown by 22%.Suffice it to say that the floods that hit Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany alone caused losses equivalent to over a third of the budget law presented by the executive.However, in terms of the allocation of funds, there seems to be an intention in the Plan shift the blame onto the EU.In the section dedicated to financing it is specified for example that "only part of the resources referred to are directly available in the Italian system.The European financing scheme mentioned in fact provides for an allocation of funds on a competitive basis and therefore the attribution is uncertain and subject to the condition of a particular effort for the presentation of qualitatively excellent applications".

Over the last 40 years, landslides and floods have caused damage amounting to 51 billion euros in the Italian peninsula.This is the most relevant data in Europe:according to what was reported by the EEA (European Environment Agency), in second place is Germany, with 36 billion, and France, with 35.

[by Simone Valeri]