21° National Congress - Third term for Monica Tommasi
On Saturday, 6 April 2024, the 21st National Congress of Amici della Terra was held in Rome, at the Sala del Carroccio on Capitoline Hill. The Congress elected the association’s governing bodies and re-elected President Monica Tommasi for a third term.
The Congress approved the motion submitted by Tommaso Franci, marking a shift in the association’s position on nuclear power.
Motion adopted by the Congress
The 21st Congress of Amici della Terra,
Notes that the association has been pursuing its commitment to rational and responsible environmentalism for more than 45 years.
Reaffirms Amici della Terra’s approach to the main environmental issues—natural hazards, water protection and water services, waste management, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, industry and sustainable development, environmental oversight, public participation and access to environmental information, biodiversity and landscape, transport, and the simplification of environmental regulations—as set out in the association’s policy platform, approved by the 14th Congress in 2015 and expanded by the 17th Congress in 2019.
Highlights the importance of the association’s contribution to national public debate through L’Astrolabio. Since its launch in 2012, over twelve years of activity, the publication has become a reference point for the analysis of environmental and energy policies. It features diverse, authoritative contributions from experts, academia, business and institutions, and attracts growing attention.
Gratefully acknowledges the publication’s founders and thanks its current editor, Rosa Filippini, for her work since 2015.
Recognises that, over the past two decades, the association’s sustained commitment to energy and environmental policies and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has been essential to developing a rational, non-ideological approach.
This work has been, and continues to be, pursued through specific national campaigns: the energy efficiency campaign, now under the banner of “Primalefficienza” (“Efficiency First”); the campaign promoting the role of heat pumps in the energy transition; and the campaign to reduce methane emissions. It has also involved taking bold positions and maintaining them over time, such as opposing excessive subsidies for intermittent renewable electricity sources and their uncontrolled expansion.
The annual National Conferences on Energy Efficiency, together with the reports produced by the association for these events, have provided continuous monitoring of developments in energy and environmental policies at international, European and national levels, enabling assessments grounded in facts.
The Congress, considering that:
Following the 2015 Paris Agreement and the growing prominence of climate action, the decarbonisation of economies, starting with electricity generation, has become a recognised priority for the international community and the main supranational institutions.
In Italy today, trends in greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, improvements in energy efficiency, electrification and the deployment of renewable energy sources increasingly reflect the contradictions inherent in the European Union’s energy and environmental policies.
These policies have proved unsuccessful because they are driven by unrealistic targets and rely uncritically on technologies—such as wind power, solar photovoltaics, batteries, electric vehicles and hydrogen—that have been idealised but are, in too many cases, unavailable or not genuinely competitive, while their negative environmental consequences are downplayed or overlooked.
The environmental and landscape impacts of wind farms and photovoltaic installations across Italy have been seriously underestimated.
Wind farms—with turbines now reaching heights of more than 200 metres—have been built and continue to receive authorisation without any spatial planning, based solely on the interests of the companies proposing them and across increasingly extensive areas. This has resulted in the devastation of historic landscapes, damage to cultural heritage and irreversible changes to ecosystem values, while also undermining valuable tourism and agricultural activities.
Ground-mounted photovoltaic installations are becoming so widespread and extensive that they represent the leading driver of land take—as documented by ISPRA—and cause clear harm to agricultural production as well as to the landscape.
Transition policies based on the rapid, uncritical expansion of intermittent renewable electricity sources, batteries and electric vehicles are generating demand for the extraction of metals and critical raw materials. In addition to causing direct environmental impacts that have not been adequately considered, this entails growing energy consumption and a significant increase in global emissions.
Life-cycle assessment does not appear to support the sustainability of these technologies even in terms of greenhouse gas emissions—the very problem they are primarily intended to address.
In particular, the European strategy intended to lead the global economy towards decarbonisation based primarily on intermittent renewable electricity sources, by demonstrating their feasibility and benefits in practice, is failing entirely to achieve its objective: the increase in greenhouse gas emissions in emerging economies far exceeds the hard-won, costly reductions achieved in Europe at the expense of European economies.
This failure is compounded by the paradox of favouring technologies whose production chains—from mining to processing activities with high environmental impacts—are monopolised by countries such as China, which are responsible for exponential emissions growth and neo-colonial policies towards countries rich in natural resources but still excluded from economic prosperity.
Against this background, the 21st Congress believes that:
Through transparent, fact-based debate, Italian society and its representatives have a responsibility to discuss and make informed decisions about the opportunities offered today by the best available nuclear power technologies and by carbon capture and storage projects.
Vetoes and taboos concerning these technological solutions are no longer acceptable if the goal of achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century is to be maintained and genuinely pursued.
The anti-nuclear campaign that characterised Amici della Terra in its early years was motivated, first and foremost, by opposition to closed and authoritarian systems and to decisions shielded by official secrecy; by the demand for transparency and access to environmental data; and by opposition to a political and scientific establishment that considered itself exempt from providing comprehensive public information and engaging in open debate about the future and expectations of the communities affected by industrial projects.
For years, our main commitment was to securing the independence of regulatory and safety authorities.
Today, too, Italy must stop delaying action to ensure environmental protection and safety, starting with the construction of a facility to manage radioactive waste, which is currently held temporarily at numerous storage sites. Regulatory and safety authorities must also be provided with all the resources they need to operate, offering citizens the highest standards of transparency and information.
The 21st Congress commits Amici della Terra to:
Working constructively to change the current approach to EU energy policies, which are central to the debate surrounding the forthcoming European elections and the development of the new Commission’s programme. In this context, the first opportunity to achieve tangible decarbonisation results is to put the “energy efficiency first” principle into practice—a principle that has so far remained only on paper.
If properly applied, it would create a positive synergy between investment in emissions reduction and improvements in European and national competitiveness.
Renewing its efforts to reshape Italy’s energy and environmental targets and policies on the basis of technological neutrality, starting with campaigns promoting energy efficiency first, heat pumps, biofuels, energy recovery from waste and district heating, and the reduction of direct emissions along the natural gas supply chain.
Continuing its campaign to reduce methane emissions by promoting policies to achieve a 30% reduction by 2030 compared with 2022, through the implementation of the necessary measures across the sectors concerned: waste management, agriculture and energy. In the energy sector, supporting international cooperation initiatives to reduce methane emissions in non-EU countries exporting natural gas to Italy.
Continuing initiatives to promote the role of heat pumps in decarbonisation policies. Key factors will include decisions on reforming the tax deduction system, a training programme for designers and installation companies, and a public information campaign on heat pumps for residential heating and cooling, enabling consumers to make informed choices.
Supporting communities threatened by unplanned wind farm and ground-mounted photovoltaic projects that cause serious harm to landscape, natural and agricultural assets.
Cultivating renewed confidence in science, sustainable development and responsible industry, considering without prejudice the real opportunities offered by all decarbonisation technologies that are available and competitive in the short to medium term, including nuclear power and carbon capture and storage, provided they can ensure a future of prosperity, safety and conservation of natural resources for all peoples worldwide.
Promoting awareness and responsibility in political action, so that the outcomes, timescales and impacts of actions and investments are always clear. Only in this way can we act effectively and efficiently and maximise, as far as possible, the reduction of all harmful emissions and all activities that destroy the natural environment.
Submitted by Tommaso Franci
Governing bodies elected by the Congress
NATIONAL COUNCIL
Donovan BALDASSARRI - Ettore BARBAGALLO - Carlotta BASILI - Maria BELVISI - Manrico BENELLI - Taira BOCCHINO - Renza BOLLETTIN - Gian Luca BORDIGA - Agostino BRUSCO - Giovanni BRUSSATO - Laura CALCAGNI - Caterina CHECCUCCI - Maurizio CONTICELLI - Laura CUTAIA - Maria D’AMICO - Gemma FILIPPINI - Carlo FODERA' - Tommaso FRANCI - Sergio GATTESCHI - Francesco GIGLIANI - Diego GAVAGNIN - Angela GIUDICEANDREA - Ezio LORENZETTI - Francesco MARTELLINI - Pier Paolo MATTIONI - Mara MESCOLINI - Fabio MODESTI - Valeria NERVI - Giovanni PICONE - Mario PILEGGI - Gianluca ROSSI - Raffaele SCIALDONI - Raffaele SPAGNUOLO - Annamaria TELINO - Andrea TRENTA - Susanna RAFFA
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Donovan BALDASSARRI - Carlotta BASILI - Tommaso FRANCI - Mara MESCOLINI
BOARD OF GUARANTORS
Corrado DE MARTINI - Rosa FILIPPINI - Anna Laura RADICONCINI
AUDITORS
Full members: Palma CAIONI - Giovanni PACE - Tiziana TOCCO
Alternate members: Laura CALCAGNI - Marco TOMMASI