The report by the National System for the Protection of the Environment (SNPA) “Land consumption, territorial dynamics and ecosystem services. 2021 Edition” was presented on July 14, 2021.
According to the report, a total cost of between 81 and 99 billion euros, in practice half of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, is what Italy could be forced to sustain due to the loss of ecosystem services linked to the consumption of soil between 2012 and 2030.
If the speed of artificial coverage remained that of 2 square meters per second recorded in 2020, the damage would cost dearly and not only in economic terms.
Since 2012, the soil has not been able to guarantee the supply of 4 million and 155 thousand quintals of agricultural products, the infiltration of over 360 million cubic meters of rainwater (which now flow to the surface, increasing the hydraulic danger of our territories) and the storage of nearly three million tons of carbon, the equivalent of over one million more cars circulating in the same period for a total of more than 90 billion km. In other words, two million times around the earth.
Download the report (in Italian only)
