Sustainable islands, the Tremiti the most virtuous late Maddalena and Elba

Progress has been made, but there are still many delays to be filled. This is the photograph taken in the fifth report “Sustainable islands – The challenges of the ecological transition” edited by the Observatory on the smaller islands of Legambiente and by the Institute on atmospheric pollution of the CNR. Presented in Rome, the event was included in the celebrations for the centenary of the Cnr.

The Tremiti are the most virtuous

There is therefore a lot to do in Italy for the full sustainability of the 27 smaller islands both in terms of waste management, zero-emission mobility, the water cycle, the use of renewable energies; fight against land use. Among the most virtuous in terms of sustainability are the Tremiti Islands with an index of 53%, followed by the Egadi Islands (Favignana, Marettimo, Levanzo), the Aeolian Islands (Lipari, Vulcano, Stromboli, Panarea, Filicudi and Alicudi), the Pelagie (Lampedusa and Linosa) which reach 49%, and from the island of Capraia which stands at 47%. “A sign that the focus is on territorial policies capable of combining environmental sustainability, innovation and attention to the territory”, reads the report. However, La Maddalena is late with an index of 21%; the island of Elba (26%) and Ischia (29%). The latter islands that need to speed up the pace.

A control room at the ministry

According to Legambiente and the Cnr, the smaller islands must set seven objectives: “That of governance (with coordination between islands and ministries); an objective of adaptation (aiming for zero soil consumption); mitigation (aiming to have 100% sustainable islands by 2050); the 4R objective (reduce – reuse – recycle – recover, for a sustainable waste management model and promoting resource reuse policies, plastic free and information campaigns); zero losses (making the water network and increasing the recovery of rain and gray water; zero pollution (improving purification systems, even in seasons with a high tourist rate); sustainable mobility goal with zero emissions by 2050 (promoting sharing mobility systems, pedestrian areas and to the most polluting cars)”. Feasible objectives? According to the CNR and Legambiente who have identified four practical actions to be put in place, we need to act quickly. In particular, we need to: “Set up a single control room at the Ministry of the Environment and Safety Energy to improve and support the governance of the territories in such a delicate phase as the one we are experiencing; draw up the Sustainable Development Plans to 2030 for the Smaller Islands to achieve the identified objectives; create a single coordination on the management of Pnrr funds, to make the most of and effectively the opportunities that the Plan offers; strengthen the role of the National Association of Smaller Islands Municipalities so that it increasingly enhances its role of coordination between the smaller islands and the government”.

The new sustainability index

For the first time, an index of sustainability of the islands has been calculated which takes into account land consumption, waste, water, energy, protected areas, mobility and building regulations. Giorgio Zampetti, general manager of Legambiente explains: “We wanted to ‘quantify’ the efforts made by the administrations and the current state of sustainability of each island through this sustainability index. The values ​​are not fully satisfactory, alongside the strengths many weaknesses have emerged. Some islands are on track, others are still too far behind. Therefore, we need a change of pace through ambitious goals and effective actions. The proposals of the Smaller Islands Observatory go in this direction and through the sustainability index tool we want to encourage local administrations, but also other stakeholders, to speed up some consolidated paths on the one hand, and invest in innovation and ambitious policies from above”.