ITALY-Environment See also: List of national parks of Italy and List of regional parks of Italy See also category:

Environment of Italy Map of national parks in Italy. After its quick industrial growth, Italy took a long time to confront its enviro nmental problems. After several improvements, it now ranks 84th in the world for ecological sustainability.[77] National parks cover about five percent of the c ountry.[78] In the last decade, Italy has become one of the world's leading prod ucers of renewable energy, ranking as the world s fourth largest holder of installed solar energy capacity[79][80] and the sixth largest holder of wind power capaci ty in 2010.[81] Renewable energies now make up about 12% of the total primary an d final energy consumption in Italy, with a future target share set at 17% for t he year 2020.[82] Hilly landscape in Tuscany. However, air pollution remains a severe problem, especially in the industrialise d north, reaching the tenth highest level worldwide of industrial carbon dioxide emissions in the 1990s.[83] Italy is the twelfth largest carbon dioxide produce r.[84][85] Extensive traffic and congestion in the largest metropolitan areas co ntinue to cause severe environmental and health issues, even if smog levels have decreased dramatically since the 1970s and 1980s, and the presence of smog is b ecoming an increasingly rarer phenomenon and levels of sulphur dioxide are decre asing.[86] Many watercourses and coastal stretches have also been contaminated by industria l and agricultural activity, while because of rising water levels, Venice has be en regularly flooded throughout recent years. Waste from industrial activity is not always disposed of by legal means and has led to permanent health effects on inhabitants of affected areas, as in the case of the Seveso disaster. The count ry has also operated several nuclear reactors between 1963 and 1990 but, after t he Chernobyl disaster and a referendum on the issue the nuclear program was term inated, a decision that was overturned by the government in 2008, planning to bu ild up to four nuclear power plants with French technology. This was in turn str uck down by a referendum following the Fukushima nuclear accident.[87] Deforestation, illegal building developments and poor land-management policies h ave led to significant erosion all over Italy's mountainous regions, leading to major ecological disasters like the 1963 Vajont Dam flood, the 1998 Sarno[88] an d 2009 Messina mudslides.