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Strategy and policy
Reform Support

Integration of the Green Infrastructure Approach into the Planning of Transport Infrastructure

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Supporting reforms to transition to a green economy and fight climate change

Funding Programme
Year
  • 2021

Integration of the Green Infrastructure Approach into the Planning of Transport Infrastructure

The Commission provided support in finding best practices and providing recommendations to integrate green infrastructures and nature-based solutions in the work of the Ministry. The project delivered also capacity building aimed at creating a centre of knowledge within the Ministry to which every Public Administration could refer to on the topic of green infrastructures and nature-based solutions.

The project indirectly supports the measures under the RRF and the absorption of EU funds by the beneficiary.

The project gives Italy the tools to make its infrastructure more resilient and more sustainable; the implementation of those tools in the upcoming period will be critical.

Context

Italy allocates 37.5% of its RRF to actions that can help the country achieve its climate and environmental goals. The Italian RRP also outlines substantial reforms and investments which will contribute to biodiversity protection, the restoration of ecosystem services and improvements in natural resource management. These cut across different sectors, including infrastructure for transport, energy, public buildings, water, etc. In other words, Italy is experiencing a strong momentum towards the greening of infrastructure, accompanied by large economic resources made available especially by the EU, under the Next Generation EU Plan.

In this context, developing environmentally aware governance of infrastructure is key to enhance the country’s resilience to changing climate conditions and extreme weather events. Doing so also provides an opportunity to rethink public management of infrastructure investments and strengthen risk management, also by introducing new measures to prevent and respond to heatwaves, windstorms, wildfires, floods, landslides, drought, extreme precipitation, soil erosion, and so on.

The project is fully aligned with other EU initiatives on the topic, such as the European Green Deal, the EU strategy for smart and sustainable mobility, the COP15 agreement on biodiversity as well as the more recent Net-Zero Industry Act.

Support delivered

The project delivered an in-depth report on best practices found in Italy and elsewhere, together with a set of recommendations to integrate those practices in the Italian context. The report is based on a fact-finding mission as well as on workshops, in-depth interview, surveys and desk research.

Second, the project provided capacity building to create a centre of knowledge within the Ministry to be the catalyst for integrating green infrastructures and nature-based solution by all Public Administrations, national and local ones.

Results achieved

By May 2023 more than 20 Ministry officials have been trained on the best practices described in the report.

The Ministry is in the process of reviewing public procurement rules, partly based on recommendations of the report.

More about the project

You can read the final report here: