A report published on the official site of the Confederation of Direct Farmers (Coldiretti), highlights the considerable damage to crops and infrastructure during that year, as a result of some 378 phenomena of this type, including droughts, hailstorms, tornadoes, storms, heat waves and floods.
Coldiretti’s analysis describes that 2023 was marked in the first months by a serious drought that compromised extensive crops, which was followed by a multiplication of extreme weather events, with heavy rains that alternated with scorching heat.
The fall was relatively mild in its temperatures, but with violent storms that devastated cities and countryside, while the year ended with “a boiling winter that sent nature into a tailspin.”
As a result, a collapse in national harvests occurred, which put basic foods at risk and, as an example, caused reductions of 20.0 percent in wine production, as well as 63 percentage points in the pear harvest.
Ettore Prandini, president of Coldiretti, stressed that Italian agriculture is the economic activity that, more than any other, suffers daily the consequences of climate change, but is also the sector most committed to combating it.
“We are facing a clear trend towards tropicalization with a greater frequency of violent demonstrations, seasonal changes, brief and intense rains and a rapid transition from heat to bad weather with devastating effects,” the study notes.
A statement released this Thursday by the environmental organization Legambiente, highlights that the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security (MASE) approved, at the end of December 2023, a National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (Pnacc) with 361 targeted actions to natural, social and economic systems.
This document, according to the source, constitutes a guide to better plan adaptation policies to environmental changes at the national and local level, in the short, medium and long term, with a strategy designed to make Italy resilient to climate crises.
Stefano Ciafani, national president of Legambiente, highlighted the importance of the approval of this plan, since this country is increasingly exposed “to the intensification of extreme weather phenomena.”
ef/ro/ort
