From 2010 to 2011 total environmental expenditure of the regional administrations decreased by 5.4%. In the North-west and Centre areas it decreased by 13.6% and 8.4% respectively; in the North-east by 4.8%, and in the South and Islands area by 2.7%.
Current or capital transfers to finance environmentally related activities carried out by other economic agents are the main components of the regional administrations’ environmental expenditure, accounting for about 62% of the total in 2011. In particular, transfers accounted for more than 90% of total environmental expenditure of Puglia (94.7%), Basilicata (95.4%), Lombardia (94.1%), Piemonte (92.7%) and Lazio (90.5%).
In 2011 both capital and current expenditure was mainly devoted to “environmental protection activities”. In particular, in 2011 regional administrations spent 2,617 million euro (64% of total environmental expenditure) to safeguard the environment from pollution (atmospheric emissions, water discharges, waste, soil pollution, etc.) and degradation (loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, salinization, etc.). The remaining 36% included environmental expenditure for the use and management of natural resources (water, energy resources, forest resources, etc.) protecting them against depletion.
With regard to the composition of environmental expenditure by domain, in 2011 regional administrations allocated their economic resources mainly to protection and remediation of soil, groundwater and surface water (19.6% of the total), use and management of water resource (16.3%), protection of biodiversity and landscapes (15.4%) and wastewater management (13.2%).
More in detail, the environmental expenditure of North-western and Central regional administrations was mainly targeted to activities of protection of biodiversity and landscape (23.8% and 19.4% of total expenditure in 2011 respectively). The highest shares were registered in Valle d’Aosta (28.3% of the total), Piemonte (26.8%) and Lazio (23.5%).
The environmental expenditure of North-eastern regional administrations was mainly targeted to activities for protection and remediation of soil, groundwater and surface water (20.9% of the total) and for protection of biodiversity and landscape (19.5%).
Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Emilia Romagna spent respectively 33.5% and 31.2% of the total expenditure on activities for protection and remediation of soil, groundwater and surface water. This expenditure consists mainly of investments for construction and maintenance of hydraulic facilities and for activities aimed at safeguarding the coast from erosion as well as the hydrogeological asset of the territory.
As far as the expenditure for protection of biodiversity and landscape is concerned, the Province of Trento was the one with the highest share, 37.5% of the total in 2011.
In the South and in the Islands area, 42% of total environmental expenditure was equally divided between activities for protection and remediation of soil, groundwater and surface water and activities of use and management of water resources. In particular, the regional administration of Calabria devoted 39.4% of the total environmental expenditure to protection and remediation of soil, groundwater and surface water account. Puglia was the regional administration with the highest share of expenditure for use and management of water resources (42.5%); the expenditure consists mainly of capital transfers for construction, maintenance and adaptation of facilities for water use as well as for water reuse and savings.
For information
Servizio Conti ambientali e sistema dei conti satellite
Carolina Ardi
tel. 06 4673.3229
email ardi@istat.it