A systematic approach
to climate protection
Regione Emilia Romagna
The territorial, administrative and political arenas of the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy are optimally positioned to address the undeniable reality of climate change from a sustainability perspective. Currently economic activities contribute 73% of the area’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with the remaining 27% due to household consumption.
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| Combined Cycle Gas Turbine cogeneration plant (ENIA - Reggio Emilia) |
Cross sector and inter-regional
The region has launched numerous initiatives since 2001 to reduce the impact on the climate. Regional Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Lino Zanichelli says, “All our programmes, following a cross-sector logic, have adopted the parameters of the Kyoto protocol.”
Significant results have been achieved in the following integrated areas:
- Industrial and territorial management with extensive water;
- Waste and energy services in harmony with regional
directives for sustainability;
- A public education programme on preserving natural
resources; and,
- The use of incentives and disincentives to encourage
businesses to choose environmental quality as a
competitive factor.
To this end, other agreements for air quality and the control of water resources were signed with the other regions of the Po Basin.
Three major systems
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Comacchio Lagoon – Regional Park
of Po delta (N. Spadoni) |
The regional regulatory system, which is tied into European and national directives, incorporates the evaluation and management of air quality. It coordinates the development of the information system for industrial plant emissions. It directs the economic regulations on transportation, energy and environmental services; in particular the application of tariffs by existing multi-utility companies in a position to reward savings and reductions in emissions, for both demand and supply.
The incentive system governs the efficient energy use, energy savings, development of renewable sources, electricity network upgrades, new technologies for industry and energy certification for buildings. It adheres to policies for energy rationalisation in the transportation sector, from the replacement of road transport with rail, to innovations aimed at retraining the production sector, to the development of consumption and sustainable lifestyles, to Green Public Procurement.
The shared processes system came out of the Bali Action Plan (“recommends the adoptions of win-win strategies….., in this sense, only the capillary knowledge of the territory permits an all-round evaluation of the impacts of actions taken”). We have harmonised and consolidated practices which connect business, employment and local government bodies with each other, with a view to continuous improvement and greater coordination of local public policies aimed at greater sustainability.
Future steps will include the recording of emissions, action plans for creating reductions and compensation as well as economic gain through incentives and market mechanisms.
The energy saving sector
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Bismantova Rock – Appennino Tosco-Emiliano National Park |
HERA Spa, a multi-utility company in eastern Emilia-Romagna, achieved significant energy-saving results in 2008, concentrating on gas and electricity providers. It reached its target of 89,984 TOE (tonnes of oil equivalent) chiefly through the efficient use of its plants and customers. Initiatives include the free distribution of 150,000 low-energy light bulbs and 340,000 water tap caps and showers, as well as optimising air-conditioning and ventilation units and improving public lighting.
HERA has advanced the industrial co-generation sector by installing electrical systems at large industrial users. From 1,500 TOE in 2008, this will reach 16,000 TOE in 2016. In the district heating sector, the energy distributed in 2008 brought savings of 13,097 TOE compared with conventional heating systems.
The waste management sector produced 349,227 MWh for energy plants in 2008. (20,795 of which came from the burning of industrial waste and therefore from non-renewable sources. Of the remaining, 51% came from renewable sources, in accordance with current regulations. Biogas waste produced 26,594 MWh.
Using biogas from purifiers resulted in 8,596 MWh; 346 MWh came from photovoltaic plants and 74 MWh from hydroelectricity. The total energy from renewables was 203,110 MWh; this is an energy saving of 44,684 TOE.
The district heating system
Enìa spa is a multi-utility company active in the west of Emilia-Romagna. Its main shareholders are city councils. Its services are principally water provision, and waste, gas and energy management, including the use of renewable sources and heat.
At the beginning of the 1980s, Enìa investigated using co-generative plants to provide a major service with a technological focus on energy and environmental efficiency. The service has to be present in three of the Province’s capital cities with a network of over 480 km and around 27,000 customers.
The expansion of the district heating network is linked to gradual integration of different heat sources: company plants, centralised plants combined with low-level pollutants, thermic centres, waste recycling plants and third-party plants such as thermo-electric centres which would otherwise have completely dispersed the heat produced. The supply of heat is also used to provide air-conditioning for buildings in the summer.
Improvement and expansion plans for the district heating network include fine-tuning plants which will improve this data.
The CO2 emissions avoided have amounted to 130,000 t/year, equivalent to around 45,000 TOE.
Regione Emilia-Romagna
W: www.regione.emilia-romagna.it
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