Climate change in Italy
Italy is experiencing widespread impacts of climate change, with an increase in extreme events such as heatwaves, droughts and more frequent flooding; for example, Venice is facing increasing issues due to sea level rise. Italy faces many challenges adapting to climate change including the economic, social, and environmental impacts that climate change creates, and an increasingly problematic death toll from the health risks that come with climate change.
Italy was the first country to make education on climate change compulsory, and has included "protection of the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems" in the constitution in order to "protect future generations". Italy is part of the Paris Agreement, the EU Adaptation Strategy and a treaty with France for a reinforced bilateral cooperation which includes a common commitment to sustainable development, the defense of the climate and biodiversity, and the protection of the Mediterranean and the Alpine Arc.
Italy is trying to adapt its consumption into a more sustainable model by turning to renewable energy and gradually eliminating fossil fuels.
Greenhouse gas emissions
Energy consumption
Italy is the 3rd largest consumer of energy in the European Union after Germany and France. Italy's most used sources of energy are petroleum products such as petrol, and natural gas. Due to climate change, Italy has been increasing efforts to produce and consume more renewable or "green" energy to reduce their carbon emissions. Italy is highly dependent on imported energy; and is the second largest importer of natural gas in Europe which comes from Russia. Some electricity is also imported, including nuclear power from France.Transportation
Transportation is the sector most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions in Italy. In 1990 Italy emitted about 100 million tonnes of, emitting steadily more annually over the following 15 years, to almost 130 million tonnes in 2005. Emission levels drop drastically in 2010 and 2015, settling between 100 and 106 million tonnes of until 2019. In 2022, Forza Italia unsuccessfully attempted to weaken EU rules on car emissions.Fossil fuels
Industrial emissions
Emissions in Italy has increased throughout the industrial age, however due to the demands of climate change and the effort to switch over to more renewable energy sources, Italy has managed to be on a downward curve for their emissions. From 1989 to about 2008, Italy was on the rise for emissions to about 600 million tonnes of, but has since decreased to under 500 Mt to around 450 Mt of in 2019. Most of their air pollution when it comes to emissions has come from their energy supply for electricity and second to that is from manufacturing.Forests
Some forest has regrown on abandoned farmland. A new forestry strategy has been agreed and was published in 2022. Wildfires in Italy can be a problem.Impacts on the natural environment
Temperature and weather changes
The climate of Italy is experiencing rising temperatures, melting glaciers, an increase in the number of extreme floods due to sea rise and high rainfall, and more frequent and prolonged periods of drought.These climatic variations could be noticed in July 2021, when heavy rains were seen causing a lot of damage, while a month later the country experienced a record temperature, with a maximum temperature of 48.8 degrees, in Sicily putting 26 cities under red alert. These two phenomena reflect a changing climate in recent years.
In addition to the increase in these extreme events, the changing Italian climate has seen a decrease in precipitation, such as the winter of 2022 which left Italy with one third less rain. The average temperature, meanwhile, has increased, both in winter and summer.
The Italian climate is tending towards tropicalisation, and is facing the consequences of climate change.
These changes are visible, at a regional level, as temperature changes in the Lazio region, where the capital, Rome, is located. This region is one of the warmest in Italy.
The Italian capital has not been spared from global warming, as the city's average temperature has risen between 1979 and 2022, from an annual average of 14.6 °C in 1980 to an average of 16.3 °C 40 years later. So it is getting hotter in the Rome area.
If we detail this increase a little more, and take the months of July and January between 1900 and 2018, the temperature has increased by 1.4 °C for July and 1.2 °C for January, and this increase is still rising.
For the future, two scenarios have been developed for Italy based on the IPCC reports. Each scenario gives a probable climate variant resulting from the emission level chosen as a working hypothesis.
The first scenario envisages an increase in greenhouse gas emissions for several more decades, before stabilising and then decreasing before the end of the century. The RCP8.5 scenario models the most extreme case, with no regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
The CMCC and the 2 scenarios seen above study the climate evolution between 2021 – 2100, based on a 1981 – 2010 reference. In Italy, we can see an increase in temperature, a decrease in the number of cold days, an increase in the number of consecutive days without rain and a decrease in summer rainfall for both scenarios. The number of days with winter precipitation increases in the north of the country while it decreases in the south. A difference is noticeable for the scenario with no reduction, which follows the same projections as the first scenario, but with much higher percentages of change.
Short term projections have been made from 2021 to 2050, we can see that the projections predict a global warming of temperatures, up to +2 °C for southern Italy, in the months of June, July and August for the 8.5 scenario.
The year 2022 has been classified as the 5th hottest year ever in Italy, making the impacts more and more visible. Indeed, not only the temperature and climate have been affected by climate change, but we can see that the sea level has also been modified.
Sea level rise
With the ongoing climate change, and thus the global increase in temperature, the polar ice caps and glaciers will continue to melt. Sea level rise is therefore expected and the Mediterranean coastline will be affected. According to the IPCC's CMIP6 model projection for the Mediterranean sea, under the SSP3-7.0 scenario, the sea level will rise by 0.6±0.3 m by year 2100. An alarming estimate was published by Strauss et al. in 2021. Their prediction was a global 8.9 m sea level rise following a 4 °C warming by year 2300, which in turn would require the reallocation of the 8.9% of the Italian population in the affected regions, as of today.In 2007, the then active Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea stated that plains and coastal areas of about 4500 km2 are at high risk of flooding in year 2100. Their flood vulnerability assessment raised concern for the increased human activity along the coastlines, causing further erosion and damage to the environment. The anthropogenic stress in forms of industrial processes, growing urbanization and tourism, has reduced the coastal fringe resilience to sea level rise, as dunes have become fragmented or destroyed, or beaches narrowing to only a few meters or less. This could lead to consequences for human health and infrastructure in the case of flooding induced by sea level rise.
Water resources
The expected sea level rise and risk of flooding along the Italian coastlines, constitutes a risk of groundwater contamination. The coastal fresh water beds might experience salt water intrusion of which may result in soil dryness in response to a lowered fresh water supply.The local effects of sea level rise in coastal regions have been studied in Murgia and Salento in southern Italy. These, as well as other regions, use groundwater as their primary supply of water for irrigation and drinking. The natural rate of refilling the groundwater aquifers by freshwater is too slow, making them sensitive to overexploitation as well as the seawater intrusions. This has led to the observed salinity of up to 7 g/L in certain locations along Salento's coast. As this salination proceeds, the groundwater discharge is expected to decrease significantly, in some cases resulting in a 16% reduction in water supply aimed for household use.
In summer 2022 the government declared the drought on the River Po an emergency.
Ecosystems
All ecosystems throughout Italy are being affected by climate change as a result of warming temperatures and increased precipitation. Droughts and wildfires caused by increased temperatures damage ecosystems leading to a cycle of destruction every warm season.Karst landscapes are very sensitive ecosystems that consist of bedrock that is dissolving and is creating caves, sinkholes, streams, etc. Many different types of soluble types of rocks exist in karst landscapes, such as limestone and marble, resulting in water eroding and dissolving rocks away and creating the characteristic karst land formation. Karst environments are so sensitive because of their close relationship with water and fragile rock. Anything that happens above will most likely affect the karst ecosystem below as well. Research has been carried out on the human threats to karst ecosystems throughout southern-eastern Italy in the region of Apulia. The biggest threat to karst ecosystems in Apulia is stone clearing and quarrying, which completely changes the landscape of the karst environment and results in the collapse of cave systems. The decline in karst environments in Italy is negative in the sense that it reduces not only biodiversity but karst environments also have the capacity to bind carbon dioxide within their underwater cave systems meaning Italy will lose this natural capability over time. Karst environments also provide drinking water due to the filtrating abilities of the characteristic porous rocks of karst environments, leading to less drinking water for Italy as well. Other actions by humans that can damage and degrade Karst environments can include mineral extraction, agriculture, cave tourism, runoff, pollution, decline of resources in water or animal species, deforestation, and so on.
There are many coasts in Italy bringing a lot of tourism and people to its ecosystems. Railways are often hailed as one of the better modes of transportation but even they can create a great impact on the surrounding nature. Railways demand flat and even land which is typically not the case by shorelines in Italy, so explosives have been used in the past to even out land for tracks. This is understandably quite impactful to the surrounding ecosystems. These railways near shorelines also suffer stability issues due to the constant erosion from the water nearby, so there is a constant need for protection from the shore with sea walls. The constant need for reconstruction of sea walls with the use of mined resources and sediments from the shoreline has created an issue with coastal squeeze in areas of Italy. Coastal squeeze is the degradation and eventual loss of ecosystems and habitats due to structures made by humans specifically on coasts where the natural process of "landward transgression" spurred on by the rise of the sea level is prevented.
The 2022 Marmolada serac collapse was caused by climate change.