BOLZANO. In Italy, the cities with the best environmental performances are concentrated in the north, while the south and center of the peninsula struggle to keep up. Trento gives up the scepter it held last year but remains close to the top: second behind Reggio Emilia. Bolzano is ninth in the rankings.
The new ranking drawn up by Ecosistema Urbano 2024, the Legambiente report created in collaboration with Ambiente Italia and Il Sole 24 Ore – on the 106 provincial capitals for environmental performance. This year the green Queen of urban environmental livability is Reggio Emilia (80.66%), which moves up the ranking from fifth place last year to first place, thus overtaking Trento (78.70%), which drops to second position , and Parma, in third place.
In detail of the items, Bolzano ranks well for greenery (5th place), efficient use of land (5th), Pm10 (15th), for cycle paths (24th place). Instead, it struggles on water consumption (56th), dispersion of the water network (49th), nitrogen dioxide (80th), waste produced (53th) and separate waste collection (62th) and public transport offer (49th).
In detail, Trento, this year, looking at the items of the analysis, comes second for total public greenerysesat for the waste cycle and the separate waste collection, eighth for public solar energy, fifteenth for the offer of collective transport (and fifteenth for their use), twelfth for the trend in land consumption, twenty-first for the rate of water dispersion, thirty-sixth for pollution atmospheric from Pm10.
An important growth in Reggio Emilia which stands out, in particular, for its commitment to separate waste collection (which rose to 83.8% in 2023). in the fight against smog, but also to be the queen of cycling with the widest cycle network, 48.14 equivalent meters of cycle paths per 100 inhabitants. The capital also records a drop in per capita water consumption (from 130 l/inhabitant/day to 127) and an increase in passengers transported by the public transport service (from 91 trips per capita per year last year to 102); and the square meters of land available to pedestrians (from 52.8 m2/inhabitant last year to 56.4).
It must be said that this year the Urban Ecosystem 2024 report, for the analysis of the 106 capitals that responded to the survey, has reviewed and updated the “weight” of some indicatorsalso adding a new one (variation in the efficient use of land), always distributed in 6 thematic areas: air, water, waste, mobility, urban environment, energy. This has led to more changes, sometimes important, in the rankings.
Broadening our gaze on the ranking, the cities of northern Italy dominate in the top ten positions: after Reggio Emilia, Trento and Parma, followed by Pordenone (position n. 4 in the ranking), Forlì (5), Treviso (6), Mantua (7), Bologna (8), Bolzano (9), Cremona (10). Emilia Romagna is the region with the most green capitals in the top ten, among these there is also Bologna, a new entry and the only large city in the top ten positions (last year it was 24th) with a leap in quality due, above all, to the separate waste collection (increased from 62.6% to 72.9%).
The other metropolises are struggling: Milan comes in 56th place in the ranking, but excels in public transport, while Naples comes almost to the bottom of the ranking, it is 103rd, last year it was 98th. Rome, responding comprehensively to the survey, rises in the ranking to 65th place (in 2023 it was 89th). Central Italy is doing well, with Macerata (23rd), Siena (26) and Livorno (29) among the capitals that place best in the ranking. However, the South did poorly with eight capitals among the last 10 in the ranking: Caserta (98th), Catanzaro (99), Vibo Valentia (101), Palermo (102), Naples (103), Crotone (104), Reggio Calabria ( 105), Catania (106) which last year was second to last.
Worth mentioning, however, is Cosenza (13th) which, although slightly worse, is the only southern city in the top 15 positions, followed in 24th place by Cagliari. Among the few positive notes for the South, the record for air quality goes to L’Aquila (first for the lowest incidence of PM10) which boasts an “excellent” situation in this regard. Ragusa’s air was also judged “good”.
The photograph taken by Ecosistema Urbano 2024 highlights how in Italy the environmental performance of cities travels at speed and with application times that are too different and where the pace needs to be accelerated.
The delays in combating the climate crisis, the unresolved chronic problems – such as smog, pollution, land consumption – the delays in urban regeneration, energy efficiency, sustainable mobility, and then the impacts of overtourism weigh on environmental performance. Issues on which more incisive interventions are needed.
In this regard, Legambiente launches its proposals today: to accelerate the pace and for cities that are more livable, sustainable and attentive to the quality of life, including the social sphere, we need a made in Italy green deal for cities that has at its center a national urban strategy that does not leave municipalities alone in the address chronic environmental problems, the climate crisis, but also the phenomenon of overtourism. On this last issue, the environmentalist association issues a warning: overtourism must be governed with effective measures, as several European cities and in the rest of the world are already doing, and must be addressed with foresight and responsibility from large to medium urban areas to small villages, up to high altitudes, for more sustainable, quality tourism, attentive and respectful of the territories and local communities. A lot is already being done abroad with significant measures, in Italy those few interventions implemented are too timid and ineffective.
The Urban Ecosystem 2024 report dedicates two in-depth focuses to the theme of overtourism and urban regeneration.
“For more sustainable, resilient and safe cities – declares Stefano Ciafani, national president of Legambiente – joint action is needed at national and territorial level by the Government, the Regions and the provincial capitals. Today, unfortunately, environmental issues are the great ones forgotten by the political agenda, which addresses issues related to the safety of citizens, only in reference to migratory phenomena, but it is necessary to address this problem from all points of view, without leaving local administrators alone in its resolution.
Courageous policies are needed from the national government360 degrees, and economic resources up to the challenge to make our country truly safe. Think for example of adaptation to the climate crisis, which causes ever more damage and loss of human life; to urban regeneration and the safety of buildings, from the presence of asbestos and the risk of earthquakes; to the fight against smog, which causes almost 50 thousand premature deaths due to PM2.5 alone, or to the process of improving the quality level of environmental controls carried out by regional environmental protection agencies, which are currently uneven across the national territory”.
“This year – comments Mirko Laurenti, from the scientific office of Legambiente and curator of the Ecosistema Urbano report – some changes have been introduced which are now necessary to keep our study updated, which is constantly evolving with the aim of ensuring that the ranking increasingly reflects urban reality.
From the data of this 2024 edition it emerges, even more clearly, that the only sustainable way to truly relaunch the country, starting from the cities, is to rethink the urban realities of the future with fewer cars and more less polluting vehicles, on rail and electric, more sustainable mobility and circular economy, more intelligent infrastructure”.