From the Ilva steelworks in Taranto to air pollution. Here are the challenges facing new environment minister Sergio Costa, as commented on by 4 experts.
The environment at the centre, belonging to everyone. With this statement of intent, Sergio Costa began his new role as Minister of the Environment, Land and Sea Protection. The senior officer of the State Forestry Corps and, subsequently, of the Carabinieri forestali, appears to echo what is written in chapter 4 of the government contract led by Giuseppe Conte: "There is a need for greater involvement in and awareness of environmental issues, capable also of building alliances and bringing the ecological question to the centre of politics."
The minister himself, born in Naples on 22 April 1959, who investigated eco-mafias in Campania, declared: "Finally, after a lifetime spent denouncing problems, the moment has come to bring solutions." Of his best-known work on the Terra dei fuochi — an area between the provinces of Naples and Caserta where toxic and special waste has been illegally buried and burned — he said in a recent interview: "It is the paradigm of the country's inattention towards our environment."
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Various environmental organisations welcomed Costa's appointment, among them Legambiente, Greenpeace and Wwf Italia. The latter had the Five Star Movement and the League sign an "ecology pact" committing the current political forces to a substantial reform of what has always been regarded as a minor ministry. For the president of the Italian branch of the Wwf, Donatella Bianchi, the choice of the eco-mafia expert would point in that direction: "Finally, the right man in the right place."
Among them: Ilva, the green economy and circular economy, reconstruction of earthquake-affected areas, curbing land consumption, countering hydrogeological risk, expanding renewables, and bringing Italy into compliance (still not achieved) with the pollutant emission levels required by EU directives — for which Italy has been referred to the European Court of Justice. At the outset of his term, many open questions obviously remain. Not only about how the stated objectives will be achieved, but also whether the environment will finally be recognised as a human right, as called for by leading environmental experts and by Pope Francis in the 2015 encyclical "Laudato si'".
We put this reflection to a writer, a professor and two lawyers dedicated to environmental issues. Their analyses and testimonies helped us to explore Sergio Costa's work and the ecological priorities of our country. We begin with Ilva and Fulvio Colucci, from Taranto, a reporter for the Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno and co-author, with Giuse Alemanno, of "Invisibili – Vivere e morire all'Ilva di Taranto" and, with Lorenzo D'Alò, of "Ilva football club".
We continue with the Terra dei Fuochi story, thanks to professor of agricultural law and food law Stefano Masini, who worked alongside General Costa himself as coordinator of the Environment and Territory area's activities at Coldiretti. Finally, the views of lawyers Anna Gerometta, president of Cittadini per l'aria, and Ugo Taddei, head of the Clean air project for ClientEarth. On behalf of their organisations and the citizens they represent, they jointly brought legal action against the Lombardy region over breaches of pollution levels.
"I saw minister Costa when he came to Taranto in 2013 as the official in charge of the Terra dei fuochi investigation. The magistrate Vitaliano Esposito was chairing the meeting on the activation of the Integrated Environmental Authorisation," Fulvio Colucci recounts from Taranto. "Today Sergio Costa finds himself in a situation complicated by two variables. The first is economic, industrial and financial: the transfer of ownership to the ArcelorMittal group is due to take place on 1 July. How will he manage the redundancy issue? When I visited Mittal's plants in Belgium, I saw a kind of halved Ilva, as it was before the expansion of the 1970s. I therefore believe that the new buyer's idea has always been one of downsizing. From a financial point of view, Ilva burns through 30 million euros a month. To avoid making a loss it is condemned to produce at maximum capacity, with plant that is by now old. That means maximum pollution."
He describes it as "a dog chasing its own tail". "Exactly. Downsizing means cutting at least 4,000 jobs, keeping the hot plant in Taranto and concentrating the cold plant in Genoa." The second variable is political. "The new minister, with his deep knowledge of environmental emergencies, will have to manage a contradiction," Colucci explains. "The government contract talks simultaneously of 'putting environmental safeguard criteria into practice, in line with the best global standards, […] protecting employment levels' and of 'the progressive closure of polluting sources, for which remediation must be provided.' It is as though reconversion and closure had to be reconciled, except that closing Ilva would take decades and remediating it centuries. It is impossible to close it immediately and fully clean up a territory that also contains radioactive elements. Mineral dumps visible from space and fugitive emissions. So far, governments have used the slogan that remediation could be achieved on a shoestring, but it might take as much as 8 billion euros. Moreover, Costa will have to manage not only the differing positions of the League and M5s, but also an internal conflict within the Movement itself. Genoese-born Beppe Grillo, Luigi Di Maio (and Salvini too), with one eye on northern workers, have never spoken of closure."
To someone who has devoted so many writings and books to the "victims" of Ilva, it is natural to ask what can still be done. "Listen to the local area, progressively restoring the human right to a clean environment and to health, which takes precedence over the right to employment. After this transitional phase, I think we will end up with a smaller plant, with cuts to production and a division between Taranto and Genoa. Employment outlets will be sought, including, it is said, in remediation work, which will begin gradually. Moreover, the plant will need to be made safe in order to protect lives. I hope for a de-industrialisation along the Pittsburgh model and for a ruling class that — as Aldo Moro used to say — looks to the day after tomorrow."
The voice of its territory, however, is not unanimous. "Because the people of Taranto regard Ilva as something imposed from above, by the State. They experience it with apathy, and I believe most of them are only interested in the employment side of things. It is a cultural problem that stems from the neo-colonialism of the south that began with the Unification of Italy and ended with the economic boom of the 1960s. Politicians did not look to the long term, but at least back then there was a faith in progress. Today, now that it has gone, they will have to get their hands dirty. Put aside the Facebook Lives, the tweets, and go back into the factories." In every major project, account should be taken of the disruption to the environment. When Ilva expanded, 40,000 olive trees were cut down and a territory was poisoned for decades. In the surrounding neighbourhood, children cannot play football in the street or go to school. On windy days you have to stay indoors. "With Tap," concludes Colucci, "account must equally be taken of the fact that a habitat is being disrupted. People and the environment, forever interrelated, can no longer be sacrificed for the sake of production."
"Coldiretti has worked with the forestry corps and its commander Sergio Costa on many initiatives," explains Professor Stefano Masini from Rome. Their paths crossed in the territories of Campania, so rich in agri-food resources and yet so gravely afflicted by organised crime. The profile of the new minister is well known and highly regarded. The Forestry Corps he led in Campania carried out important operations to combat crimes that were undermining the agri-food economy as well as people's health. These include persistent actions against illegal quarries and landfills, the combating of the burning of harmful substances, the monitoring of illegal forms of livestock farming such as buffalo farming, and the fight against caporalato.
"The work in the Terra dei fuochi has been arduous, but we can now say it is done," Masini confides. "A certain section of the press exploited it." Some media outlets reported that the levels of contamination in the area and in foodstuffs had been exaggerated, attributing the blame to Commander Sergio Costa himself. "That is not true. It was a case of profiteering by the national press, later picked up by the foreign press." This is what happened: "A thorough sampling exercise was carried out that made it possible to assign each area a final designation. Fortunately, only a few hectares were excluded from food production due to contamination. The produce from the other areas was given environmental and safety certification."
Among the current priorities for the environment ministry, the professor speaks of Ilva itself: "Some industrial processes are obsolete and incompatible with the better quality of life that is demanded in a Western country. It is not enough to make polluters pay or to limit the damage from sources. In the relationship between science and technology, we must always assess whether development is sustainable. For example: if we decide to cultivate GMOs, we must ask ourselves whether we intend to reduce the protection of biodiversity." "A national strategy is needed to transform the environment ministry from a minor ministry into the centre of a process of oversight over economic and social choices," continues the head of the environment brief at Coldiretti. "To reduce the use of plastic, we need to promote returnable deposits. In public procurement, the criterion for selection must be sustainability and no longer just the lowest cost. Another example: the referendum on oil drilling was not a good test for the Renzi government. The south has an agricultural and tourism vocation. I would prefer one more sustainable seaside resort and one fewer oil well. Opening a protected area is a greater investment than building a factory."
Another central theme in the debate on the environment is that of the inequity of economic transactions, as indicated also by Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato si'. "Looking at soya cultivation in Argentina, one can see that monoculture produces scarcity, low incomes, and inequity," continues Professor Masini. "Some things in Italy have already been done. Zero-kilometre farmers' markets, educational farms, services for people with disabilities, agriturismos. To reconnect the countryside to the city, as well as the peripheries as indicated by Senator Renzo Piano, a law on land consumption is needed — currently stalled. We need to start again from a more precise text that halts the loss of hundreds of hectares to concreting over, changes in use, or paving. Where possible, we must focus on the reuse of already built spaces. With regard to water collection, Coldiretti has a project to build a thousand reservoirs — that is, collection basins to deal with drought — that do not require construction and concreting work."
Finally, a criticism of the European Union: "I hope for a Europe with less bureaucracy and more subsidiarity. For Brussels, 'everything is waste once it loses its designated use.' Many by-products, however, must be channelled into recycling. How can you create equity in a supply chain where Italian oranges are paid 0.05 cents per kilogram? It is obvious that surpluses arise. We need to ask the EU to add more orange juice to soft drinks…"
