Siclari (Ispra): «To achieve the objectives set by European standards it will be necessary to increase efforts»
[10 Maggio 2024]
The Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra) published three reports yesterday that track the trend of Italian emissions, both climate-altering and polluting.
On the podium of the main sources of greenhouse gases, in 2022, there are transport (26%), followed by energy production (23%), home air conditioning (18%) and the manufacturing industry (13%); followed by the agricultural sector (7.4%) and the so-called industrial processes and use of other products (IPPU, 5.7%), to conclude with the waste management sector (4.9%).
Overall, CO2eq emissions fell by 20.9% between 1990 and 2022, going from 522 to 413 million tonnes CO2eq; a trend found not by chance “particularly since 2008”, with the arrival of the great recession.
In addition to the growth of renewable sources and efficiency, the decline in consumption and industrial activities also had an impact “due to the economic crisis and the relocation of some production”, not to mention the pandemic. An increase in emissions was then recorded in 2021 and 2022, as a result of the recovery of mobility and economic activities.
For 2023, only preliminary estimates are currently available, but those provided by Ispra – consistently with those already produced by Enea and Italy for climate – show a new drop in emissions equal to -6.2%, which in any case marks “the exceeding of the limit allowed for the same year (12.9 MtCO2eq)” by the Effort sharing regulation.
«This result – explains Ispra – is mainly due to the lack of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from road transport which, despite European directives, continue to maintain the high emission levels of 2014, thus leading to the maximum limit being exceeded».
In fact, if the energy sector sees emissions falling by 20.7% from 1990 to 2022 and the industrial sector records -37.8%, in the same period transport shows an even growing figure (+7.4%). Equally critical is the residential sector, which as already mentioned still accounts for 18% of total emissions.
The country’s greatest efforts for decarbonisation should be concentrated on these two sectors, and it is no coincidence that the Meloni Government has openly taken a stand against the approval of the EU directive on “Green Homes”, as well as towards stopping the registration of cars and vans powered by fossil fuels from 2035. Yet these are issues that cannot be avoided.
«In order to achieve the objectives set by European standards it will be necessary to increase efforts compared to the measures in force – explains the general director of ISPRA, Maria Siclari – both in the transport sector, also by reducing the demand for private mobility and favoring the technological switch and modal of people and goods, both in the civil sector where the role of new technologies is decisive. The path to be taken to achieve the new European objective will require a great effort, also in terms of investments, by the entire country system”.
In addition to the climate, the air breathed by citizens will also benefit. ISPRA also shows that, in the period 1990-2022, air pollution in the country has improved significantly.
The reductions are particularly relevant for the main pollutants (SOX -95%; NOX -71%; CO -72%; NMVOC -58%), for BC (-63%), cadmium (-63%), mercury (-64 %), lead (-95%) and hexachlorobenzene (-91%).
The energy sector is the main source of emissions in Italy with a share of over 80% for many pollutants (SOX 92%; NOX 92%; CO 93%; PM2.5 85%; BC 90%; PAH 86%, HCB 91%), while the agricultural sector is the main source of NH3 emissions in Italy with a share of 90% of the national total.
Once again, the drop in polluting emissions is linked to “reductions in the industrial and road transport sectors, due to the implementation of various European directives”, together with the “improvement of energy efficiency and the promotion of renewable energy”.
But even on the pollution front, a lot remains to be done: the latest data compiled by the European Environment Agency (EEA) show that bad quality still causes tens of thousands of deaths a year in the country. In fact, Italy has the European record for premature deaths due to air pollution, with as many as 46,800 deaths per year from PM2.5, another 11,300 from NO2 and 5,100 from O3.
