O1 sustainability report italy by VAIVA KELMELYTE

Environmental Sustainability in the VET System: a Powerful Tool for the Future Project No. 2016-1-IT01-KA202-005387

Environmental Sustainability Report Italy

Developed by: INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL METHODOLOGIES OF NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL IMC-CNR

Authors: Piero Ciccioli (piero.ciccioli@cnr.it) Pietro Ragni (pietro.ragni@cnr.it)

Spring 2017

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Table of Contents ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN EUROPE - THE EN-VET APPROACH ..................................................................................................................................... 3

CRITICAL OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN ITALY - CRITICAL ISSUES AND POINTS OF STRENGTH .................................................................................................................... 4

ECONOMIC ASPECTS – THE ROLE OF ENTERPRISES IN IMPROVING THE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN ITALY ............................................................................................................... 9

SOCIAL ASPECTS I – ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN ITALY ............................................................... 14

SOCIAL ASPECTS II - SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AND RESEARCHES DEDICATED TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM-SOLVING IN ITALY ........................................................................................................ 17

SOCIAL ASPECTS III – EDUCATION AND PUBLIC AWARENESS ON ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN ITALY ............................................................................................................. 22

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................. 25

Environmental sustainability and sustainable development in Europe The EN-VET approach On 25 September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted the universal, integrated and transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. According to this document, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs onwards) should be achieved within the year 2030 to boost a successful transition toward a sustainable society and a resource-efficient economy. The European Union has accepted the SDGs and has committed itself to implement them in its internal and external policies. By considering the targets established by the European Union policy for the year 2030, the EN-VET products has been defined according to those SDGs that are specifically aimed at improving the environmental sustainability in the Member States. Since SDGs were defined in order to achieve a sustainable development in three dimensions (economic, social and environmental) by balancing them through an integrated approach, the EN-VET project will be focused on eight SDGs that are the most representative of environmental aspects of the sustainability. They can be summarized as it follows: SDG 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture; SDG 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all; SDG 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all; SDG 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable; SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns; SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; SDG 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development; SDG 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. Although the didactic programs will be mainly focused on the SDGs listed above, the other dimensions of sustainable development will be also taken into account in the EN-VET project, in order to be coherent with the 2030 Agenda. For this reason, a critical discussion on the impact that actions aimed at mitigating environmental problems can have on the economy and social aspects of the EU member states will also be included, by mentioning the specific SDGs to which they refer. By following this conceptual approach, the EN-VET partners agreed to produce documents that will report and discuss:

the way how the environmental issues related to the eight SDGs mentioned above affect their own countries, together with the points of strength and weakness that presently exist in the achievement of the goals foreseen for the year 2030; the way how the economy of their countries is linked to environmental problems, and the strategies put in place by national enterprises in order to contribute at improving environmental sustainability; the social impact that environmental sustainability has on their countries by influencing their national policies, scientific knowledge, education and public awareness.

To harmonize the National Sustainability Reports produced in the project, the analysis has been strongly be based on data collected at EU scale that were made available by European Certified Bodies, such as European Commission Directorate-General for Communication (ECAS), European Environment Agency (EEA) and Joint Research Center (JRC). This approach ensures that a common benchmark of knowledge is shared by all the partners of the project, which is regarded as a fundamental tool for the production of a reliable and robust Comparative Sustainability Report.

Critical overview of environmental sustainability in Italy - Critical issues and points of strength The most critical issues concerning environmental sustainability in Italy can be conveniently clustered in the light of those Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs from now on) aimed at protecting the environment and promoting a more efficient management of natural resources. By using this criterium, climate change mitigation (SDG 13) is of paramount importance, because two of the most relevant environmental issues of Italy fall in this area of interest. The first environmental problem is represented by very high CO2 emission. According to the most recent estimates made by EDGAR (Oliver et al., 2016), Italy is ranked as 19th amongst the 20 countries in the world producing the highest annual emission of this greenhouse gas. Within the European Union, Italy is the third major emitter of CO2 after Germany and UK. The estimated national emission per year is 0,35 billion tons, corresponding to about 10% of the total CO2 emitted per year by all the 28 European Union Member States. For this reason, the Italian government undertook policy actions aimed at mitigating CO2 emission coming from non-ETS sectors (i.e. transports, agriculture, building industry). In this regard, Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) has spent many efforts to subsidize renewable energy sources in order to stimulate a significant increase in the adoption of green technologies for electricity production. This policy has produced a remarkable decline in the use of fossil-fuel for electricity production, that dropped from 81% in the year 2000 to less than 56% in 2014 (IEA, 2016). Similar policies have been applied to the transport sector, making Italy one of the three European Union Member States exhibiting the lowest CO2 emissions per capita due to transportation, and the highest railway-road transport ratio in the ground shipment of goods 4

(Green Economy States General, 2016). However, the expected overall reduction of CO2 emission has still not been achieved yet. This is mainly due to the fact that relevant portions of this greenhouse gas emission come from high carbon industries that fall in the ETS sector. Italy is, indeed, the fourth major emitter of CO2 originated by ETS sector in the European Union, after Germany, UK and Poland (EEA, 2015). Cement production is particularly relevant, since Italy is the second major producer of cement in the European Union (with an estimated production of 23 million tons per year), after Germany (which has an estimated production of 32 million tons per year). The contribution of cement production to the emission of CO2 in Italy is well highlighted by the close relation observed between the fluctuations of the emission recorded in the past three decades and country-specific economic fluctuations, that heavily affected the national GPD during the same time lapse. Data suggest that CO2 emission was strongly influenced by the local demand of cement in the building and construction sector. The first noticeable decrease of CO2 emission recorded in Italy during the past thirty years was indeed concurrent with the Figure 1: Share of ETS CO2 emission in European Union severe crisis of the building industry by country. occurred in 2008. The lack of investments Source: EEA/EU ETS Data Viewer, 2015. in the construction sector drastically diminished the demand of cement, ultimately leading to a dramatic reduction (-38%) of national cement production in 2010. This event was followed by a progressive reduction of CO2 emission, that decreased from 0,48 billion tons in 2007 to 0,34 billon tons in 2014. During the past two years, the slow recovery of building industry has led to a slight increase in cement and concrete production (+5,9%), that was mirrored by a parallel increase in CO2 emissions in 2015 (+5,1% with respect of 2014), in spite of the more widespread adoption of renewable energy resources registered during the same year in Italy (e.g. +13% increase in electricity production from solar photovoltaic, with respect of 2014). It is thus evident that efforts in promoting decarbonization in non-ETS sectors are not sufficient by themselves to substantially reduce CO2 emission in Italy. Only stronger efforts in decarbonization policies in the high-carbon manufacturing sector, especially in the national cement production, can effectively mitigate this problem. This can be achieved through an extensive optimization of production plants and the development of new low-carbon cements. These aspects will be further 5

discussed in the section dealing with the role of enterprises in improving environmental sustainability. The second major issue arises from the high susceptibility of Italy to desertification caused by climate changes. The most recent report produced by JRC on the state of soil in Europe (Jones et al., 2012) shows that Italy is the second European Country more sensitive to desertification after Spain. More than 20% of the national territory is at high risk of desertification, and about 41% of the affected areas are located in the Southern part of the country, particularly in Sicily. If not mitigated, this process could ultimately lead to an irreversible degradation of a large portion of national soil, transforming arable land into dry one. Italy is also the European country more subjected to erosion of cultivated land through rain-splash, sheet-wash and rill erosion, because it has the highest density of average steep slopes in Europe. The occurrence of intense rainfall events followed by prolonged drought periods, that more and more characterize the annual climatic trends in Italy, represents a serious threat to agricultural soil. While intense rainfall events can lead to a substantial displacement of soil particles by physical processes, severe droughts may damage the protective plant cover. In addition to natural processes, also anthropogenic factors concur to exacerbate the risk of desertification through the depletion of agricultural soil available in the country. The urban land cover in Italy presently accounts for about 7% of the entire national land, and this value is quite above the mean urban land cover observed in the European Union Member States (4,3%). Moreover, the increase in the urban land cover registered in the past two decades has remained always higher (6,4%) than the average increase occurring in Europe (5,7%). This corresponded to a loss of more than 100.000 hectares of cultivated areas. Although soil consumption due to urbanization has slightly decreased in the past few years, this is not due to the adoption of strategies specifically aimed at limiting this process but mainly to the consequences of the crisis in the construction sector occurred in 2008. Figure 2: Mean soil erosion rates for arable lands (tons per This explains why the present situation in Italy is still far from the hectare per year) in European Union. targets set by Europe 2020 strategy. Source: Joint Research Centre, European Commission, 2010. 6

The combined effects of environmental and anthropic factors have made Italy the European Union Member State suffering the highest losses of arable soil (Panagos et al., 2012). More than 75% of national arable soil is actually characterized by loss rates higher than 5 tons per hectare per year, whereas about 65% of these areas show loss rates ranging from 10 to over 20 tons per hectare per year. Despite the combined efforts spent by the national scientific community and the National Committee specifically devoted to fight drought and desertification (namely CNLSD), an integrated strategy aimed at mitigating desertification processes and at promoting good practices in soil management has not been yet fully adopted nationwide. This action is particularly urgent because soil degradation has also serious negative feedbacks on other strategic sectors, such as agricultural food production (SDG 2), sustainable management of water (SDG 6), preservation of terrestrial ecosystem (SDG 15) and promotion of urban sustainability (SDG 11), that are all crucial for achieving a sustainable development. These two critical aspects are somehow balanced, however, by some excellence points reached by Italy in the field of environmental sustainability, especially in boosting the adoption of renewable energy sources (SDG 7). Based on the most recent estimates (Olivier et al., 2016), Italy has the highest level of penetration of solar photovoltaic energy in the world, reaching a share of 8,9% in the national electricity generation in 2015. Other forms of renewable energies are also quite widely adopted. According to the data diffused by the World Wind Energy Association (Pitteloud and GsĂ¤nger, 2016), Italy is the ninth energy producer by wind power in the world and the fifth amongst the European Union Member States. In 2015, this renewable energy contributed by 5,4% to the total electricity production. Although hydropower energy production did not increase in the past five years, it still maintained in Italy at a remarkable level (15,6% of national electricity generation). Electricity production from biomass, geothermal and other renewables sources is also fairly diffused, as it accounts for 8,9% of the whole production (Olivier et al., 2016). Even though more than 39% of electricity generated in Italy comes from renewable sources, green technologies have not been fully Figure 3: Share in national electricity generation of exploited yet. This is the reason why MISE has solar photovoltaic power production in top 10 issued in 2016 a law (Minstero dello Sviluppo countries and European Union. Economico, 2016) to promote the adoption of Source: Joint Research Centre, European green technologies other than solar Commission, 2016. 7

photovoltaic. The main objective of this law is to better balance the use of different renewable sources for energy production through specific subsidies. Another point strength of Italy is the recycling of special wastes, that can be directly related to SDG 12 and SDG 11. In addition to be the seventh major producer of special waste in the European Union (ISPRA, 2016), Italy also produces an annual amount of special wastes (131 million tons/year) that is more than four times higher than that originated from municipal

wastes

(30

Figure 4: Special waste management in Italy. million tons/year). Today, Source: National Institute for the Protection and Research of the 91,7% of these special Environment, ISPRA, 2016.

wastes is composed of nonhazardous materials, whereas only 8,3% is classified as hazardous waste. These latter originate to a large extent (39%) from the manufacturing sector, whereas the construction and demolition sector contribute by 40% to the amount of non-hazardous special waste. The impact that such a large quantity of special waste could have had on the environment has been, however, drastically reduced by the widespread adoption in Italy of new technologies and good practices in the recycling process. As a result of this, about 76% of special waste is currently recycled, and this is done to a substantial extent (62% of the total) with de-manufacturing technologies and resource recovery treatments able to selectively sort and reuse secondary raw materials, such as metals used in smelting industry. In Europe, Italy is, after Slovenia, the country with the highest recycling rate of special wastes, and is well above the European average (46%) (ISPRA, 2016). This result has been mainly achieved through policies aimed at encouraging joint public-private partnerships in the research and development of advanced de-manufacturing and recycling technologies. This aspect will be further discussed in the section dealing with the role of national scientific research in improving environmental sustainability.

Synthetic evaluation Critical issues: - very high CO2 emission  SDG 13; - high exposure to desertification  SDG 13 with severe impacts on SDGs 2, 6, 11 and 15. Points of strength: - high penetration of renewable energy sources  SDG 7; 8

very high recycling rate of special waste  SDGs 11 and 12.

Economic aspects – The role of enterprises in improving the environmental sustainability in Italy Data discussed in the previous section showed that cement production is one of the most impactful high carbon industry in Italy as it plays an important role in the emission of CO2 originated by ETS sector that has been registered in the country. The largest part of CO2 emitted by cement production comes from the process needed to obtain clinker, which is the main constituent of ordinary Portland cement. It has been estimated that nearly 1 ton of CO2 is emitted for each ton of clinker produced (EEA, 2006). The decarboxylation process of limestone at 1.450 °C for the clinker production accounts for about 50% of this total emission of CO2, while the oxidative combustion of fossil fuel needed to heat kilns contributes for about 40%. Finally, indirect CO2 emission arising from electric power consumption accounts for about 10%. Several approaches have been taken worldwide to reduce CO2 emission from cement production. One consists in limiting the use of clinker by replacing a portion of it with non-hazardous decarbonized materials. These materials, also known as supplementary cementitious materials, can be waste products of industrial plants (blast furnace slag, fly ash, silica fume) or locally available natural rocks (pozzolans, volcanic tuffs). In the past few years, Cembureau encouraged the production of lower-clinker cements at European scale (Cembureau, 2012), because this approach has been recognized as a resource-efficient good practice that strongly helps to meet the requirements set by the Europe 2020 strategy. In particular, efforts in maximizing the substitution rates of supplementary cementitious materials coming from industrial waste have been encouraged, as these processes require a lesser consumption of natural raw materials, that are non-renewable resources. According to the most recent data published by the Italian Cement Technical-Economic Association (AITEC, 2015), the production of lower-clinker cements with high substitution rates is still moderate in Italy. About 14% of the total cement produced per year falls in the CEM I category (ordinary Portland cement, with content of clinker higher than 95%) and about 70% falls in CEM II category (low to moderate substitution rates, corresponding to a content of clinker ranging from 94 to 65%). A remarkable portion of the production (about 12,6%) is represented by CEM IV pozzolanic cements (having a clinker content ranging from 89 to 45%), while just a share of 3,6% is represented by cements falling in CEM III and CEM V categories, that shows the higher substitution rates (64-5% and 64-20% of clinker content, respectively). Unfortunately, the production of CEM III and CEM V is difficult to boost in Italy, because of the relatively scarce availability of blast furnace slags (especially iron slag) that are the main supplementary cementitious materials used in the production of these types of cements. However, the production of CEM IV should be further improved, given the large availability in Italy of some scrap 9

materials, besides fly ashes, exhibiting pozzolanic properties that could be exploited in cement industry (e.g. rice husk).

Figure 5: Annual distribution of Italian cement production by category of cement. Source: AITEC estimates on Ministry of Economic Development data, AITEC, 2015.

A complementary approach to the production of lower-clinker cements is the optimization of cement production plants and the use of alternative fuels, that offer a high potential for the cement industry to reduce CO2 emission. Examples of alternative fuels include biomass, exhausted tyres and waste oil. Some large cement companies in Italy have introduced this strategy in the management of their cement production plants. In this regard, a virtuous example comes from Colacem S.p.A., which is the third major producer of cement in Italy. Colacem accepted to be interviewed for the EN-VET project and shared with us some detailed information on good practices that the company has put in place in order to improve the sustainability of their production plants. The company environmental-friendly policy is aimed at boosting the use of refuse-derived fuels and solid recovered fuels to partially replace conventional fuels in the firing line of production plants. For example, the use of biomass as partial replacement of petrol coke in three of the biggest production plants that the company has in Italy has led to a 30.000 tons reduction of CO2 in 2015. In addition, all Colacem plants are equipped with the best available technologies for reducing energy consumption by recovering heat and energy flows. State of the art process control systems are also adopted to keep all emissions (including those of sulfur dioxide, nitrous dioxide and suspended particulated matter) close to the minimum. Emission values currently measured in each Colacem plant are, thus, well below the emissions commonly released by plants having comparable cement production rates. Colacem also adopts a remarkable communication strategy, characterized by a strong quality and transparency of disclosure. It has been among the first companies in Italy to participate in the 10

Global Reporting Initiative framework by publishing their first sustainability report in 2007. Since then, Colacem publishes yearly an increasing detailed sustainability report and the document is currently certified with maximum level of disclosure, namely A+, meaning that all the information on sustainability policies are accessible to the public. For this type of activity, the company has received recognitions by Legambiente (the most relevant environmental association in Italy) and by several shows aired on national networks dealing with scientific dissemination. The Colacem case study is paradigmatic of the fact that promotion of environmental sustainability can be an added value for companies operating in the high carbon industry sector and can also bring to the enterprises a competitive advantage, because this approach combines environmental benefits with business model innovation. There is no doubt that a widespread adoption of this strategy can substantially contribute to the reduction of CO2 emission in Italy. Promising signs came also from some SMEs operating in similar environmental impactful sectors that has been interviewed for the EN-VET project. For instance, Unibloc is developing an industrial technology to reuse hemp fiber scraps as inert material for the production of green concretes, while Mirodur S.p.A. has developed, patented and implemented in its own production plants a mill (namely â&#x20AC;&#x153;Turbomillâ&#x20AC;?) that strongly reduces the use of water and chemical solvents for paint production (that is currently the second most environmental impactful manufacturing process in Italy, after cement production). Figure 6: Some of the most remarkable environmental sustainability achievements reached by Colacem during fiscal year 2015. Source: Colacem S.p.A. Unipersonale, Sustainability Report, 2015.

RIELCO Impianti S.r.l., also interviewed in the EN-VET project, represents, instead, a significant case study on the high level of penetration of renewable energy sources (in particular solar photovoltaic) that has been registered in Italy. The company has two divisions, one (Environmental Division) is mainly focused on development and production of new indoor air quality control systems, the other (Energy Division) is dedicated to the design and execution of optimized systems to improve the energy-efficiency in buildings. The latter division highly relies on advanced solar 11

photovoltaic technologies and boasts over 600 customers in Italy, ranging from local public institutions to private citizens. RIELCO explained in the interview that has installed its optimization systems in large scale industrial plants as well as in private apartment buildings, proving that the demand for renewable energy technologies in Italy is indeed widespread and varied. In large part, this is due to the fact that the recent Italian economic crisis generated a diffused need for solutions aimed at reducing/optimizing energy consumption. This, combined with national subsidies for the adoption of renewable energy sources, made the acquisition of green energyefficient systems very cost effective for the end user, creating a promising market for these technologies. For this reason, the number of SMEs that, similarly to RIELCO, are specialized in sustainable energy-efficiency solutions is growing rapidly in Italy, giving rise to a sound green economy model. The credit for this latter achievement goes also to noteworthy Italian based international events, aimed at promoting and clustering companies operating in the sustainable technology sector. Among these initiatives, Ecomondo and Key Energy are two of the most important. Ecomondo is an annual expo aimed at showcasing in a single event all sectors of the circular economy, ranging from material and energy recovery to sustainable development. Key Energy runs in parallel with Ecomondo and is the expo specifically dedicated to energy-efficiency solutions and renewable energy. Both events are held yearly in Rimini Expo Centre and currently represent the biggest platform dedicated to energy efficiency and green economy in the EuroMediterranean area, with 1.200 exhibiting companies attracting over 100.000 visitors each year. Ecomondo also yearly hosts the States General of the Green Economy, a workshop promoted by the National Council for the Green Economy and specifically aimed at implementing a platform for the development of green economy in Italy. Data analysis presented during the last States General of the Green Economy (2016) well summarizes the results achieved by Italian companies in boosting renewable energy sources and in waste recycling and highlights the crucial issues that might hinder the growth of the green economy in Italy. In this study, the National Council for the Green Economy identified 8 strategic areas of interest to assess the ranking of countries in the green economy field, in which critical data analysis is made. These strategic themes are greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energies, energy efficiency, waste recycling, eco-innovation, natural capital, ecological farming and food industry, and sustainable mobility. 16 indicators were derived from these categories. By using these indicators, Italy shows the best overall performance among the top five European countries, having reached the score of 59/100, with respect to 53/100, 50/100 and 48/100 reached by Germany, UK, and both France and Spain, respectively. Specifically, Italy was ranked first in: renewable energy quotas, special waste recycling, CO2 emissions per capita in transports and agri-food products of certified quality. It was ranked as the second more efficient country in energy efficiency, resource productivity, and biological agriculture. Based on these results, Italian green economy is one of the best in Europe.

This is conflicting with a widespread perception of the importance of the Italian green economy in Italy and abroad. The normalized results of the analysis of different economies show a good performance of Italy, that currently ranks 15th among 80 countries worldwide. In spite of this outstanding results, the international opinion on the Italian green economy remains low when compared to other EU Member States, as it ranks 29th in the international perception. In particular, Italy is rated as 68th in leadership and climate change, while is in 32th place in the world ranking if the actual performances are used for classification. This suggests that actions must be taken to make consistent the perception of the Italian green economy with the actual results obtained. In our opinion, this objective can be reached by a more strict cooperation between companies, institutions, media and research centers. In particular, the Italian companies should be more aware of the important role that dissemination activities performed by public bodies have in providing to them more visibility abroad. In this respect, they seem to be not so much responsive to this type of Figure 7: Resource productivity (how efficiently the economy uses material resources to produce wealth) of Italy compared to EU initiatives. During the company survey performed for the EN-VET average. project, only 60% of the Source: Eurostat, 2016. contacted companies (especially SMEs that regularly participate in Ecomondo events) showed interest in providing information at a EU scale about their programs on the promotion of environmental sustainability. On the other hand, public institutions should actively promote those companies that operates in the green economy sector. In this regard, the main challenges are related to the low level of public support for SMEs taking part in the green economy and the lack of a national policy devoted to program circular economy models. Adequate actions aimed at overcoming these barriers should be undertaken in order to avoid to damp the slant towards green and circular economy that has strongly characterized the strategic business choices of Italian SMEs in the past few years. According to the most recent estimates (DG Environment, 2017), Italy boasts, indeed, 385.570 companies that are investing in the green economy. Moreover, around 26,5% of Italian businesses can be considered green and exhibits a rate of innovation that is almost double than that of the other types of business performed in the country (22,2% against 11,4%). Even if largely improvable, resource efficiency actions undertaken by Italian SMEs allowed a reduction of 46% in production costs (with respect of a European Union average of 45%) and substantially contributed 13

to the noticeable increasing in resource productivity that has been registered recently in Italy (Eurostat, 2016). It is thus evident that urgent measures should be taken by policy makers in order to support this virtuous trend and fully express its potential.

Synthetic evaluation Points of weakness: - strategies aimed at mitigating CO2 emission coming from high carbon industries are largely improvable; - widespread low opinion at international level of Italian green economy, despite of its remarkable quality. Points of strength: - some virtuous large enterprises operating in the high carbon industry sector developed a stewardship approach that embodies a responsible planning and management of resources; - a remarkable number of SMEs and large enterprises successfully operates in green energy efficiency and waste recycling sectors, giving rise to a sound circular economy model that excels in Europe.

Social aspects I – Environmental policy in Italy Differently from other countries, such as France, the principles of environmental sustainability and those for a sustainable environment are not present in the Italian Constitution issued in 1948 and never modified since then. They were first indicated in a specific body of ordinary laws dealing with environmental issues that was enacted in 2006 (Decreto Legislativo 3 aprile 2006, N° 152). In this document, the rules to protect the environment from the impact of some anthropic activities were defined, together with procedures to make strategic environmental assessment (VAS) of any new public and private infrastructure, and to evaluate its environmental impact (VIA) in order to build it in a sustainable way. However, policy directives aimed at developing an integrated environmental strategy at national level and “green management” models were not indicated in this body of laws. Moreover, some of the implementation tools for the application of organic laws defined in the “Environmental strategic actions for a sustainable development in Italy” (MATTM, 2002), that was promulgated in 2002 to respond to the “Agenda 21” requirements, were not developed. As a result of this, policies aimed at promoting the environmental sustainability were not applied in a full and harmonized way in Italy. To overcome this problem, the Italian Government has issued in February 2016 a new law (221/2015) aimed at promoting the development of an integrated environmental policy, that was consistent with both the European directives and the most advanced international standards. The first objective of this law is to update the national strategy for a sustainable environment by introducing suitable indicators to better define and monitor the state of the Natural Capital of the country. With this law, the Italian Government is committed to produce annual reports on the 14

state of the country, containing both physical and economic information that are fully coherent with the standards defined by the United Nations and the European Union. To prepare the annual report, homogeneous data coming from the different Italian Regions are collected and evaluated by a National Committee of experts established at the Ministry of the Environment. These Annual reports on the environmental sustainability and sustainable development will be then transmitted to the Prime Minister and to the Minister for the Economy to design policies dedicated to the preservation of the national Natural Capital that will be fully coherent with the objectives defined by the European Union. The late promulgation of this law has produced several effects. First of all, it has hindered Italy to present a national strategy on the sustainable development at the meeting held in 2015 by the Highlevel Political Forum after the adoption of SDGs. The second effect is that Italy does not have yet a database coherent with the SDGs defined by the 2030 Agenda. Due to the limited data available, it is still difficult for Italy to quantitatively identify the national Figure 8: Gap between emissions estimates and targets in 2014 priorities by using the indicators by the European and between projected emissions (with existing measures) and defined targets in 2020 in non-ETS sectors. Negative and positive values Commission. This not only makes respectively indicate over delivery and shortfall. difficult for decision makers to take Source: Report from the Commission to the European Parliament adequate actions aimed at aligning and the Council, Climate action progress report, including the Italy with the environmental report on the functioning of the European carbon market and the policies promoted by the European report on the review of Directive 2009/31/EC on the geological Union, but also for the storage of carbon dioxide, 2015. stakeholders to correctly evaluate the extent to which Italy actually deviates from the goals defined by Europe in the 2020 strategy and those indicated in the 2030 Agenda. 15

Although an integrated policy on environmental sustainability is still not fully available in Italy, the strategies adopted by the government has allowed the country to successfully face some of the environmental priorities discussed in the previous sections. As far as the CO2 emission is concerned, proper actions have been taken since 2007 to stimulate the adoption of green technologies for energy production and to reduce the CO2 emission from public and private transport. In particular the “National Action Plan for Renewable Energies” (MISE, 2010) and the “Action Plan for Energy Efficiency” (MISE, 2011) have played a determining role in producing a drastic reduction in CO2 emission from the non-ETS sectors and in the activation of a virtuous cycle that has allowed Italy to develop a solid green economy in the field of renewable energies. The results obtained are so impressive that the Italian government has decided this year (MEF, 2017) to extend up to the year 2020 the fiscal benefits to further boost the use of technologies exploiting renewable sources for energy production, and for the energy upgrading of public and private buildings. According to the estimates made by the Ministry of the Environment, Italy will be below the limits to the emission of greenhouse gases for the non-ETS sectors established by the European Parliament in 2009. This assessment is also consistent with the projections that have been made at European level to estimate the emission reduction that Italy can achieve within year 2020 by following the existing measures (Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council, 2015).

Figure 9: Example of the digital version of the National Atlas of the Areas at Risk of Desertification in Italy showing some indexed data (number of consecutive drought days, in this case) that are crucial to assess the exposure to desertification of Sicily. Source: INEA & CREA, Atlante Nazionale delle Aree a Rischio di Desertificazione – Relazione Finale, 2007.

As far as the desertification problem is concerned, the Italian government has undertaken actions since 1997, when the United Nation convention to combat desertification (UNCCD) was signed by 16

Italy. In particular, guidelines for the development of a “National Action Plan Against Drought and Desertification” were established (CNLSD, 1998), aimed at clearly defining the actions that State, Regions and Water Authorities must take to fight drought and desertification in order to meet the commitments of the UNCCD agreement. A National Committee specifically devoted to fight desertification (CNLSD) has been established at the Ministry of the Environment with the aim of organize the “National Action Plan”, monitor the deterioration of vulnerable soils, prepare national information and research programs strictly connected with the National Program on Climate Changes. As a result of this, in 1999 CNLSD has created in Sardinia a National Observatory on Desertification with the aim to investigate the desertification processes in Italy and in the Mediterranean basin, and to promote international studies on this critical issue. CNLSD has also created an Italian Information System (ICHD) specifically devoted to assess the most critical areas prone to desertification, and provide information on the deterioration of soils at national and international level. CNLSD has also leaded many initiatives to raise the public awareness on the desertification problem by disseminating the information collected in Italy and in the Mediterranean basin. In 2008, CNLSD has actively promoted the development of a “National Atlas of the Areas at Risk of Desertification in Italy” that has been produced in cooperation with the Italian Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of Agricultural Economy (CREA) and the National Institute for Agricultural Economy (INEA).

Synthetic evaluation Points of weakness: - lack of a national database that is coherent with the SDGs and can effectively help decision makers to take adequate actions aimed at aligning Italy with the environmental policies promoted by the EU; - late promulgation of a body of organic laws aimed at designing policies on preservation of the Natural Capital that will be fully coherent with the objectives defined by the EU. Points of strength: - Consolidated adoption of common laws aimed at protecting the environment and limiting the anthropic impacts that somehow balanced the prolonged lack of an integrated environmental policy; - robust government measures aimed at facing the most pressing environmental issues registered in the country.

Social aspects II - Scientific knowledge and researches dedicated to environmental problem-solving in Italy As described in the previous section, in the last three decades the Italian government has widely promoted the involvement of the scientific community in the studies aimed at investigating the main processes leading to desertification and at developing good practices to mitigate the impact 17

of climate changes. Thanks to these actions, many public research Institutions of Italy have acquired a consolidated experience on these critical issues. Among them, it is worth to mention the National Research Council (CNR), the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Economic Sustainable Development (ENEA), the Institute for the Protection and Research of the Environment (ISPRA), the Council for Agricultural Research and or the Analysis of Agricultural Economy (CREA) and the Regional Agencies for Health and Environment Protection (ARPA). An important role has been also played by Universities, especially those located in areas more exposed to drought (islands and southern regions), as they have started several research lines specifically dedicated to fight desertification. Within the frame of the National Strategic Research Program launched by the Italian government in 2005, some of these Universities have made a Consortium Agreement to create the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Changes (CMCC), a non-profit research Institute specifically devoted to develop climatic models for the Mediterranean basin in order to provide to the policy makers the necessary tools to develop suitable strategies to mitigate the impact of climate changes. Thanks to the joint efforts made by these research Institutions, Italy is one of the leading country in Europe in the fields of desertification and impact of climate changes on soil. In the last three decades, the Italian research Institutions have participated to more than 70 European Union Projects, acting in many instances as Coordinators. Among these programs, it is worth to mention: 

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“Resourcenet” aimed at carrying out a coordination action among the most relevant EU projects concerning the rational use of natural resource in arid and semiarid Mediterranean areas. “AID-CCD” aimed at developing and coordinating international exchange of experience between scientific institutions involved in the implementation of the regional annexes of the United Nation convention to combat desertification (UNCCD). “Desertnet” (Interreg IIIB - MEDOCC) aimed at monitoring and sustainably managing Mediterranean areas that are at risk of desertification. “CIRCE - Climate Change and Impact Research: the Mediterranean Environment” aimed at predicting and quantifying physical impacts on Mediterranean area that are originated by climate change. “AquaStress” aimed at developing an interdisciplinary method to mitigate water stress problems in arid areas.

In addition to research activities, considerable efforts have been devoted to the dissemination of results obtained at various levels. Among the most important initiatives there are those organized by CNR, jointly with ENEA, ISPRA and CREA, during International Exposition held in Milan in 2015 (EXPO 2015), that was entirely dedicated to agriculture and food in a sustainable environment. During the period of the Exposition, an entire day was devoted to present and discuss the desertification problem in order to make aware the public on the various effects that this process has on food production. The concepts were also widely presented to the public with audio-visual presentations. 18

In spite of the level of excellence reached by the Italian research Institutions, the transfer of this knowledge to the end-users has been quite limited. The good practices developed nationally and successfully adopted by some EU and non-EU countries (such as those located in North Africa) have found only a limited application in Italy. The accurate knowledge of the national soil conditions and of the effects produced by climate changes has not led to proper actions aimed at mitigating the adverse effects in a systematic way. An example of this is the still limited application of precision farming in food production. The limited exploitation of the scientific potential is due to several reasons. The most important is linked to the excessive fragmentation of agricultural soil use. Many of the Italian agricultural enterprises are too small to have a sound return on investments on innovation. Only if a sufficient size is reached, a high degree of research and innovation is introduced in food production and excellent results are obtained. This has happened, for instance, in wine production sector, where Italy has become one of the most important producer in Europe of products of certified high-quality. The extension of this model to the whole agricultural food production is, however, not easy. To reach a dimension in which the costs of research and innovation can be fully capitalized by the production, small farmers need to combine their efforts toward the production of high quality products. So far, this has happened only in some parts of Italy. Especially in the Northern parts of the country. The example of Trentino Alto Adige (Sud Tirol) is illuminating. In less than 20 years, farmers of this Region have been able to reach the excellence in the pear and apple production and open a Research Institute to certify the quality of their products at national and international level. Although the government stimulates the creation of joint enterprises of farmers to share production and sell their products, there is a historical resistance to follow this approach, especially in Southern-Central Italy and in the islands. The tendency toward innovation is also limited by a misleading interpretation of the so called “biological agriculture”. For many small farmers the simple elimination of chemical products in food production is ‘per se' an added value that justifies higher prices. In reality, this condition is necessary but not sufficient to get high Figure 10: Map of the desertification sensitive area of Tuscany developed jointly by CNR and the Administrative Region of Tuscany, within the framework of the EU Interreg project DesertNet. Source: IBIMET-CNR database.

quality products. In this respect, more close interactions between research Institutions and producers is needed, to convince them to join toward higher quality products. This implies also a higher degree of education of the consumers on what the real quality of food means, starting from the elementary school. An analogous situation happens in the field of building construction, which is, together with food production, another important asset of the Italian economy that has a severe impact on soil preservation due to the high rate of urban land take registered in the country. The excessive fragmentation of the building industry is combined with the limited capability of local administrations to develop adequate city planning to reduce the unnecessary consumption of soil due to urbanization. Again, there is an excessive consumption of soil in some parts of Italy, whereas in others it is almost impossible to build a new construction, even if it is compatible with a sustainable environment. Moreover, in many parts of Italy the building enterprises are too small to be able to design and build constructions with a higher degree of innovation. This is particularly true for the introduction of green cements in building industry. The lack of demand of products with better lifecycle and limited CO2 emission is such to discourage the national cement industry to develop and sell these new products. Certainly, the definition of national standards in these fields is urgently needed, given the strong dissimilarities between the regional laws managing the urbanization and the use of soil. One point to stress is that the economic value of sustainability is not adequately taken into account in many regional laws. Efforts are needed to make the public administrations and the citizen aware of the fact that the environmental sustainability is not an option, only once this concept is accepted results comparable to those obtained in other strategic sectors can be achieved. In this respect, the Flagship Project â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fabbrica del Futuroâ&#x20AC;? funded by the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research (MIUR) within the frame of the 2013 National Research Plan can be taken as an example to follow. Coordinated by CNR, it involves enterprises and different research Institutions on specific research projects aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the Italian industry through the development of innovative, sustainable processes, that are coherent with the EU policies, such as the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe. In this project, the sustainability of processes is regarded as a key point for the competitiveness of enterprises. One of the macroobjectives of the project is, indeed, the development of cost-effective technologies able to lead to a sustainable manufacturing of industrial products, not only in terms of energy consumption but also in terms of new products and processes for the de-manufacturing, recycling and re-use of industrial wastes. On the same direction goes the National Technological Cluster: Smart Factory, also financed by MIUR in 2012. It is a no-profit association composed by 300 members, that includes public and private Research Institutions, Universities and enterprises, that combine their efforts to carry out advanced research in order to introduce in the Italian manufacturing sector new processes, technologies and production systems that are coherent with EU indications for a sustainable innovation. This is done through joint research projects between private companies and public and private research Institutions producing results that can attract the national and international funding necessary to develop sustainable enabling technologies. 20

Figure 10: In order to strengthen the cooperation between public research and private companies, the prototypes produced within the framework of the Flagship Project “Fabbrica del Futuro” have been presented in 2016 at the BI-MU. BI-MU is one of the most qualified international events dedicated to showcasing advanced production systems and auxiliary technologies for the industry sector that is held every two years in Milan. Source: Flagship Project “Fabbirca del Futuro” Official Website.

The results of this projects have indeed produced technologies and industrial processes that are economically rewarding, but also able to minimize the environmental impacts, saving energy and natural resources. Both projects have contributed to the previously discussed level of excellence reached by Italy in the energy saving sector and in the recycling and re-use of industrial wastes. They have been also recognized (Short et al., 2013) as the most efficient initiatives undertaken at European level to create a close link between public research bodies and enterprises active in the manufacturing sector. In spite of the excellent results obtained, the prosecution of these activities is highly uncertain due to the lack of funding allocated by the Italian government in public research. After Greece, Italy is the EU country using the smallest fraction of the GDP for public research. Only 1,31% of Italian GDP is dedicated to public research, against a EU average of 2,06%. Moreover Italy is also the country with lowest density of researchers (OECD, 2016). Only 4,5% of every 1.000 occupied people is working in research, against a EU average of 7,8%. Since funding in R&D is crucial to reach the sustainability targets indicated by the EU in Europe 2020 and 2030 Agenda, it is important that the Italian government takes adequate actions to sustain public research in the present and the future.

Figure 11: Percentage of people working in scientific research sector per 1.000 occupied people, by country. Source: OECD, Main Science and Technology Indicators database, 2016.

Synthetic evaluation Points of weakness: - Economic, social and administrative difficulties prevent the development of an efficient national strategy for the protection of soil and the mitigation of climate changes, in spite of the availability of state of the art knowledge and technologies; - The limited and uncertain resources allocated by the Italian government to R&D makes difficult to develop a long-term strategy to fully promote the sustainability of processes in the manufacturing sector. Points of strength: - Italian research reached a level of excellence at EU scale and worldwide in the sectors aimed at fighting the desertification process and at mitigating the impact of Climate changes; - the active role played by the Italian research bodies in implementing the sustainability of processes in the manufacturing sector has allowed Italy to improve its international competitiveness, and to be one of the leading country in the â&#x20AC;&#x153;green economyâ&#x20AC;? thanks to the wide use of renewable resources, the reduction of greenhouse gas emission and the development of advanced technologies for de-manufacturing, recycling and re-use of industrial wastes.

Social aspects III â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Education and public awareness on environmental sustainability in Italy The results of the Special Eurobarometer 441 survey performed in 28 Member States during December 2015, in occasion of the European Year for Development (ECAS, 2015), have shown that only 36% of the Italian people were aware of the SDGs defined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Of the 967 persons interviewed in the various sessions, 63% had never heard of the SDGs, 27% only had a vague idea of them, and only about 9% knew the European sustainable 22

development strategies in some detail. Although these values do not depart from the EU average, they are consistent with the fact that Italy is one of the two Member States (along with Greece) where awareness towards sustainable development has declined since 2014 (both -3%). In the light of these results, an Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS) was established on February 2016 with the specific aim of raising the awareness on the importance of European Agenda for Sustainable Development in the Italian society. To assess the reasons why a low level of knowledge existed, a census of the educational programs and informative activities on sustainable development carried out in the past few years by NGOs, foundations, public bodies, schools, universities and research centers of Italy was made by ASviS. The various initiatives were clustered according to the 17 SDGs introduced in 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Results obtained (that are available at this Web address) show clearly that main topics related to environmental sustainability in Europe did represent a minor portion of the education and information Figure 12: Italian Citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s awareness on SDGs with respect to EU programs performed in Italy. More average. than 75% of the programs were in Source: ECAS, 2015. large part, or even exclusively, dedicated to social and economic topics, dealing most with the end of poverty, the achievement of gender equality, the reduction of inequality within and among countries, and the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies (corresponding to SDGs 1, 5, 10 and 16, respectively). Only slightly less than 40% of the educational initiatives undertaken in Italy were partly dealing with issues related to the environmental sustainability, and only 10 programs out of 50 recorded in the census were focused on those environmental problems that are particularly relevant to Italy, such as climate change mitigation and promotion of renewable energies (corresponding to SDGs 13 and 7, respectively). In addition to be scarce in quantity, these programs provided also a quite unbalanced coverage of the different topics related to the 17 SDGs. In order to increase the knowledge on Italian citizens and students on the issues related to sustainable development and increase the awareness on the strategies and actions undertaken in 23

this field by the national government and local administrations, a memorandum of understanding has been recently signed by the ASviS and the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Scientific Research (MIUR). The document binds the parties to collaborate in the promotion of training initiatives and in the dissemination of all information available on SDGs. The main actions foreseen for the year 2017 are the ones devoted to the development of dedicated e-learning courses for school teachers, the promotion of learning activities in elementary schools, and the setup of programs addressed to middle and high schools students for the academic year 20172018. In our opinion, the joint efforts undertaken by ASviS and MIUR to increase the number of initiatives devoted to spread the knowledge and increase the awareness of Italian people on this matter can reach their goals only if a more balanced information on all the three dimensions of sustainable development (social, economic and environmental) as defined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is offered. It is evident from the census performed by ASviS that some important topics related to environmental sustainability and their connections with socioeconomic factors were not adequately covered by dissemination activities put in place in Italy during the past few years. The main reason why the EN-VET project was specifically focused on various aspects related to the environmental sustainability was, indeed, to fill the gap in the educational tools presently available on these topics. We believe that the reception by VET local authorities of the outcomes of the activities undertaken in the project will be of help in providing a deeper and more complete information on sustainable development at a national scale.

Synthetic evaluation Points of weakness: - low public awareness on SDGs and European sustainable development strategies in general; - scarce number of educational tools dedicated to sustainable development and in particular to environmental sustainability topics that are of relevant interest for the country. Points of strength: - a national body has been recently established with the specific task of raising the awareness on the importance of European Agenda for Sustainable Development in the Italian society; - an operative strategy aimed at boosting knowledge on European sustainability policies in schools has been developed in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Scientific Research.

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