Opening Address

Roberto Levaggi,  Ministry of the Environment, Regione Liguria, Italy

The knowledge of environmental conditions, the forecast of effects of human actions on the different components of the environment, the comprehension of the process through which these same actions exert their influence on the quality of air, water, soil, on ecosystems and on climate, must be, and really they are, an absolutely necessary reference to fix the strategies in defense of the environment, and consequently, of the environmental policy.

Nowadays this is true (and it will be more and more in the future) for the territorial levels this policy is referred to, from the world level to the local one, passing through the European and national levels.

The importance of the “measure” of environmental parameters in the field of laws and programmatic acts of European Union is obvious.

With the term “measure” of environmental parameters we mean not only the improvement of the environmental quality through direct measures, but also the more and more frequent use of the techniques of modelling and of the methods of objective evaluation.

We can think, for example, to the set of rules about the “evaluation and quality management system of air”. It provides that the direct measure of the quality of air must be supported by the techniques of modelling, in order to foresee the efficiency of the interventions through which we can obtain the respect of the limits.

The recent signature of the Kyoto protocol by the European countries makes us understand how important and necessary is to reconcile environmental policies with other policies, that are important for the socio-economic development.

The European laws and the consequent national laws point out the problem of proving through scientific methods the effects of the single choices in the field of energy, of transport, of building and so on.

If we really want to contribute to the achievement of the purposes of Kyoto, we must “measure” the strategies and actions we must follow in the field of energy, transport, building.

For what I have said so far and for the issues that will be dealt with in the next days, I wish to all of you a successful conference and hope that the improvement of the know how can help us to make better choices to defend the environment.