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ITALIAN ELECTIONS

Deadly floods force Italy’s politicians to face climate crisis

Severe storms in central Italy that left ten dead on Friday have forced politicians to raise the topic of the climate crisis ahead of the elections, with the left-wing leader saying it must be ‘the first priority’.

Published: 16 September 2022 16:33 CEST
Deadly floods force Italy's politicians to face climate crisis
Flash flooding killed at least ten people and caused significant damage overnight on Thursday in the Italian province of Ancona, Marche. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

At least ten people have died and four are missing after flash flooding hit Italy’s central Marche region overnight on Thursday, pushing the the climate crisis up the political agenda ahead of elections on September 25th.

Hard-right Brothers of Italy party leader Giorgia Meloni, widely expected to become Italy’s next prime minister, sent her “full solidarity” to those affected by the flooding in Marche, where her party runs the local government.

UPDATE: Death toll rises to 10 in flash floods in central Italy

Enrico Letta, leader of the opposing centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said he was suspending campaigning, adding that he was left “stunned and speechless” by the tragedy.

“How can you think that the fight against climate change is not the first priority?” he said.

The EU’s economy commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, a former Italian premier, on Friday said: “Italy and Europe must take climate change seriously”.

Residents clear up and assess the damage after flash flooding in the Italian province of Ancona, Marche. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP.

But the subject has been largely absent from political debate ahead of the elections so far – despite polls finding more 80 percent of Italian voters think climate issues should be a top political priority.

A petition launched by Italian climate scientists in August urging politicians to focus on the environment in the coming election was signed by more than 120,000 people.

READ ALSO: Where do Italy’s main parties stand on environmental issues?

Parties have had little to say on the topic in debates and on social media, however, according to a recent study by Greenpeace, and many of the main parties’ election manifestos have failed to prioritise climate issues – though they all contain environment and energy-related pledges for the first time.

A detailed assessment by scientists of parties’ climate action pledges found manifestos from the PD, Europa Verde (Green Europe), and Sinistra Italiana (Italian Left) had given the issue the most attention, while the joint manifesto published by the right-wing coalition of Brothers of Italy, the League and Forza Italia, was found to be most lacking.

The storms on Thursday pushed the number of extreme weather events in Italy this summer up to 1,642 – five times the number recorded a decade ago – according to data published by farmers’ association Coldiretti.

“We are seeing the clear consequences of climate change, as exceptional weather events are now the norm in Italy,” Coldiretti stated.

This summer’s drought, the worst in 70 years, drained the Po River, Italy’s largest water reservoir, while exceptional heat fuelled forest fires and caused a spike in heat-related deaths

READ ALSO: Climate crisis: Italy records ‘five times’ more extreme weather events in ten years

The baking heat has in recent weeks been followed by storms, the water flooding land rendered hard as concrete.

In July, 11 people were killed when a section of Italy’s biggest Alpine glacier collapsed, in a disaster officials blamed on climate change.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said on Thursday.

Published: 26 April 2024 08:48 CEST
'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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