Extreme weather events in Italy increased by 153%

A planet Earth increasingly in difficulty, threatened by a climate crisis that does not stop its progress and does not spare any country in the world. Alarm bell: the growing trend of extreme weather events. Alone in Italy since the beginning of 2023 they have increased by +135% compared to those of the beginning of 2022. In particular, in the Peninsula, from January to May, they registered 122 extreme events against 52 in the same months of 2022. Flooding from heavy rains is the type that occurred most frequently with 30 events against 16 in the first 5 months of 2022, thus marking a +87.5%. Furthermore, since the beginning of the year, six regions have been most affected by extreme climatic events: Emilia-Romagna (36), Sicily (15), Piedmont (10), Lazio (8), Lombardy (8), Tuscany (8).

This is what Legambiente denounces and is spreading today, on the occasion of World Environment Day the new data from its Città Clima Observatory, to underline the sos that comes from the environment and the climate and to send a clear message to the Meloni government. To help the environment and counter the current climate crisis, more ambitious climate policies are needed accompanied by concrete actions both at national and European level. On the one hand, Italy must speed up the pace by approving the climate adaptation plan of which our country still lacks and providing adequate resources; updating the PNIEC by the end of June; approving a law against soil consumption that Italy has been waiting for for 11 years.

Three priority actions on which Italy is currently lagging behind. At European level, for Legambiente, it is important that a solidarity pact for the climate be defined immediately, as proposed by UN Secretary General Guterres, between industrialized, emerging and developing countries to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 globally. With the commitment of the industrialized countries to financially support the climate action of the poorest countries and anticipate the achievement of net zero emissions to 2040.

“The photograph taken by our Città Clima Observatory on extreme climatic events speaks for itself – he declares Stephen Ciafani, national president of Legambiente – we need to reverse course as soon as possible. The floods that hit Emilia-Romagna and the Marches in recent weeks, but also the heavy rains that have hit Sardinia and other regions of Italy in recent days are yet another demonstration of how much the climate crisis is accelerating its pace causing enormous damage to the environment, the country’s economy, and loss of human lives. We ask the Meloni Government to assume responsibility because to address the issue of the climate crisis, a strong political will is needed with concrete interventions that can no longer be postponed to repair the mistakes of the past such as, for example, burying rivers, building in unsuitable areas or near watercourses… Now we need to turn the page and the first tools to do so are precisely the climate adaptation plan and the resources to implement it, the update of the PNIEC, a law against soil consumption. Without forgetting that the country needs more territorial prevention policies and information campaigns for coexistence with risk. Only in this way will it be possible to avoid that the last tragedy is the penultimate and that the country always chases the emergency “.

Three urgent actions on which Italy must step up. National plan for adaptation to climate change: Italy must definitively approve the National Plan for adaptation to climate change, still on standby after the SEA phase (strategic environmental assessment) launched by the government at the end of last year after the Ischia tragedy. AND allocate adequate economic resources to implement it, given that they were not foreseen in the last budget law. PNIEC. Italy, together with the other member states of the European Union, by the end of June must update the
its Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC). A fundamental tool for putting in place, in the next crucial years between now and 2030, ambitious European and national climate action capable of helping to contain global warming below the critical threshold of 1.5°C and tackle the climate emergency.

In short, Italy must play its part with the revision of its PNIEC going well beyond the inadequate national climate target of 51% proposed in the PNRR for 2030. Italy can make up for the current delay (from the recent ISPRA report on Italy’s emission scenarios it emerges that in 2030 with current policies we will be able to achieve a reduction in climate-altering emissions of just 33% compared to 1990 levels) and center the 65% climate target thanks above all to the contribution of energy efficiency and renewables. In this game it is essential, also to accelerate the energy transition, to foresee the phase-out of subsidies to fossil fuels by 2030, thus freeing up important financial resources to invest in the development of renewables and energy efficiency. And then accelerating the decarbonisation of transport, electric mobility can and must make a difference. Land use law: Legambiente recalls that the bill, whose legislative process began in 2012, has been blocked in Parliament since 2016, when it was approved by the Chamber of Deputies, expecting to reach zero, i.e. not cementing an extra square meter, by 2050.