Italy and the Sustainable Development Goals ASviS Report 2019 Italy and the Sustainable Development Goals ASviS Report 2019 This report was produced - under the supervision of the ASviS Director, Enrico Giovannini - thanks to contributions from experts involved in member organisations of the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development, who were divided into thematic working groups. We would particularly like to thank: • the working group coordinators: Gemma Arpaia, Cesare Avenia, Fabrizio Barca, Stefania Bertolini, Francesco Bicciato, Francesca Bilotta, Valentino Bobbio, Ruggero Bodo, Gianfranco Bologna, Gianni Bottalico, Federica Casarsa, Gian Paolo Cesaretti, Gianni Di Cesare, Andrea Gavosto, Gennaro Di Genova, Luigi Di Marco, Paola Dubini, Viviana Egidi, Toni Federico, Giovanni Fini, Giordana Francia, Filomena Maggino, Marcella Mallen, Federico Mazzetti, Marina Migliorato, Stefano Molina, Annachiara Moltoni, Luciano Monti, Adolfo Morrone, Rosanna Oliva De Conciliis, Elisa Petrini, Luca Raffaele, Angelo Riccaboni, Eleonora Rizzuto, Filippo Salone, Antonio Sfameli, Silvia Stilli, Walter Vitali. • the ASviS Secretariat representatives for the working groups: Martina Alemanno, Eleonora Angeloni, Flavia Belladonna, Andrea Bonicatti, Gianluigi Bovini, Claudia Caputi, Mariaflavia Cascelli, Livia Celardo, Alessandro Ciancio, Davide Ciferri, Giuliana Coccia, Carla Collicelli, Antonino Costantino, Giulia D’Agata, Rosa De Pasquale, Riccardo Della Valle, Luigi Ferrata, Cristina Fioravanti, Mario Fiumara, Luciano Forlani, Stefano Furlan, Giulio Lo Iacono, Cecilia Menichella, Flavio Natale, Patricia Navarra, Federico Olivieri, Ottavia Ortolani, Lucilla Persichetti, Lorenzo Pompi, Sabina Ratti, Alice Rinalduzzi, Donato Speroni, Andrea Stefani, Flavia Terribile, Michele Torsello. Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS), Via Farini 17, 00185 Rome, www.asvis.it President: Pierluigi Stefanini Director: Enrico Giovannini Head of communications, advocacy and social media: Claudia Caputi Planning, management and monitoring of cross-cutting activities: Giulio Lo Iacono Head of Human Resources and Training: Cristina Fioravanti Editor-in-chief: Donato Speroni Head of the administrative office and educational affairs: Martina Alemanno Head of Relations with Italian Regional and Local Authorities: Gianni Bottalico Head of International Institutional Relations: Sabina Ratti Head of National Institutional Relations: Patricia Navarra A complete list of Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development members can be found on p. 166. Italy and the Sustainable Development Goals Contents Introduction 5 Executive summary 6 1. The 2030 Agenda around the world 9 1.1 The global commitment to sustainable development 10 Box > #FridaysForFuture: students’ commitment to combating climate change 10 Box > The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development 11 Box > New UN world population forecasts 12 1.2 Combating climate change and the risks for peace 13 Box > “Climate Breakdown”: a change of tone in the media 14 Box > The United Nations Global Compact for Migration 16 Box > The loss of biodiversity: a worldwide phenomenon 17 1.3 Implementation of the 2030 Agenda: an overall assessment 18 Box > The UN Report on the 2030 Agenda for the HLPF 2019 19 Box > Analysis of Goal 8 carried out by ASviS for the International Trade Union Confederation 22 Box > Future scenarios: The SDGs and planetary boundaries 23 1.4 The role of financial instruments in implementing the 2030 Agenda 24 Box > The Reform of the United Nations to speed up achievement of the SDGs 25 2. The 2030 Agenda in Europe 29 2.1 The situation of the European Union with regard to the SDGs 30 2.2 Policy statements by the President-elect of the European Commission and the European Council’s Strategic Agenda 2019-2024 35 2.3 European institutions and the 2030 Agenda: a growing commitment to an integrated approach 37 2.4 Climate change, circular economy and energy 40 2.5 European institutions’ commitment to sustainable finance 42 Box > The European Commission’s Action Plan to finance Sustainable Development 43 2.6 Civil society initiatives 44 IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS > Disparities between European countries with regard to the 2030 Agenda 46 3 ASviS Report 2019 3. The 2030 Agenda in Italy 59 3.1 Government and public administration initiatives four years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda 60 Government initiatives 60 Parliamentary initiatives 61 Box > The Italian Senate plays host to Greta Thunberg 62 3.2 Education on sustainable development in schools, universities and the public administration 64 Box > E-learning courses by ASviS 64 Box > The ASviS Summer School 65 3.3 The mobilisation and commitment of businesses 67 3.4 ASviS’s activities 68 Organisational structure and cooperation with other stakeholders 68 Institutional engagement 69 The Sustainable Development Festival 70 Awareness-raising and information 72 Research initiatives 73 Saturdays for Future 74 Other projects 74 3.5 Italy’s path to sustainable development 75 How does Italy rank with respect to the SDGs 75 The regions and sustainable development policies 80 Box > Update of the Urban Agenda for sustainable development 89 3.6 The evolution of legislation in relation to the SDGs 90 Box > The state of food systems in Italy and possible actions 92 Box > The inclusion of the 2030 Agenda in the civic education law 96 IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS > A race against time: the Targets to be achieved by 2020 113 4. ASviS’s recommendations 127 4.1 Recent policy innovations at the European and Italian levels 128 Box > Recommendations made by ASviS to political parties during the 2018 general elections 130 4.2 Cross-cutting and systemic actions 131 Box > Operating mechanisms in a fully integrated system 132 4.3 Policies to accelerate the transition towards sustainable development 135 The climate crisis and energy 135 Poverty and inequality 137 Circular economy, innovation and employment 139 Human capital, health and education 142 Natural capital and the quality of the environment 144 Cities, infrastructure and social capital 147 International cooperation 149 5. Appendix: Goals and Targets 153 4 Italy and the Sustainable Development Goals Introduction Four years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda by the 193 member countries of the United Nations, in- cluding Italy, there is a growing awareness worldwide of the need for an integrated approach to address complex economic, social, environmental and institutional challenges in order to shift to a sustainable de- velopment model. This awareness on the part of governments, businesses, civil society and individual cit- izens, especially young people, is emerging against an international backdrop of growing tensions and undeniable difficulties in finding multilateral solutions to global problems. In this context, it should be noted that the 2030 Agenda is central to the strategies of the new European Commission chaired by Ursula von der Leyen, which - marking a clean break from the vacillation of the Juncker Commission - has presented a five-year action plan aimed at making sustainable development the cornerstone of European and national policies. In Italy too, the issue of sustainable development has taken on a more important role in the last year, partly thanks to the actions of ASviS. An understanding of the need and potential for a shift in the socio-economic paradigm has finally gained a foothold in civil society and the business world, in national government and among regional and city authorities, as well as in schools and among the general public, also thanks to the mobilisation of students and the success of the Italian Sustainable Development Festival, which held 1,061 events. Some of the proposals put forward by the Al- liance have been endorsed by the European Commission and the new government, but only concrete actions will allow for an assessment of institutional players’ effective commitment to sustainable development. This ASviS Report for 2019, now in its fourth edition, introduces several innovations. The Report sets out the position of Italy, its regions and the European Union with regard to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, analyses the regulatory output of the last twelve months, and puts forward pro- posals to improve Italy’s economic, social and environmental performance, thereby reducing the stark in- equalities that characterise our country. The 21 Targets that Italy has committed to achieving by 2020 are then analysed in depth. Once again, this year’s Report reveals Italy’s many contradictions. On the one hand, there have been alarm- ing delays and the lack of a clear implementation strategy for the 2030 Agenda. On the other, encouraging signs have emerged, such as the new government’s commitment to include the principle of sustainable de- velopment in the Constitution, to have an Urban Agenda for sustainable development, and to orient policies towards the green economy, the circular economy and combating forms of inequality, including gender- based ones. ASviS has become a reference point in the debate on sustainable development in Italy, and is unique at in- ternational level. Once again, the Alliance’s membership has grown this year (currently standing at 227, plus an additional 111 associates), and its activities have expanded. In 2019, the Festival attracted a large number of participants and was selected, from among more than 2,000 projects, as a finalist for the UN Award for sustainable development initiatives. Partnerships with institutions, businesses, universities and