Abstract
Making good environmental damage caused by industrial accidents and restoring impaired ecosystems may be associated with high costs. The European Environmental Liability Directive requires that environmental damage is prevented or remediated and confers financial liability on operators responsible for the activities that caused the damage. The directive encourages adoption of financial risk instruments for environmental liability, ensuring that operators stand up for their responsibilities. We analyse the risk financing instruments for environmental liability in Italy, with emphasis on waste treatment and disposal plant management in Venice Metropolitan City, where financial guarantees and environmental insurance are mandatory. The regional legislation obliges operators of waste treatment plants to seek financial protection through financial guarantees and environmental insurance. We have conducted online survey and in-depth interviews with both suppliers and users of financial protection instruments. On national level, the relatively high environmental consciousness is countered by a low perception of risk and subsequently very low penetration of financial security instruments. Among the identified barriers, we have singled out a limited knowledge of cumulative and long-lasting impacts of industrial activities on environment and ecosystems. Financial and insurance are well developed, but a deep support for specific risk identification and coverage lacks. A closer cooperation between public and private sector can be an opportunity to foster the adoption of these instruments and to improve the coverage of public costs for environmental restoration, due to unattended liability.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
PFAS is the acronym for Perfluorinated Alkylated Substances. They are persistent organic pollutants, because of their toxicity and long-term persistency in the wildlife and human body and there are many concerns also for their impact on the environment (https://www.regione.veneto.it/web/sanita/pfas).
References
Abraham KS (1988) Environmental liability and the limits of insurance. Columbia Law Rev 88(942):1–40
ACE Group (2011) A guide to Environmental Liability in Europe, UK
Astorri F, D’Anna C, D’Aprle L and Salomone M (2015) Pericolosità di Origine Antropica, in Annuario Dati Ambientali, edited by ISPRA. [online] Available from: http://www.isprambiente.gov.it/it/pubblicazioni/stato-dellambiente/annuario-dei-dati-ambientali-edizione-2014-2015. Accessed 9 May 2019
Bocken H (2006) Financial guarantees in the environmental liability directive: next time better. Eur Environ Law Rev:13–32
Camera dei Deputati (2016) Commissione parlamentare di inchiesta sulle attività illecite connesse al ciclo dei rifiuti e su illeciti ambientali ad esse correlati - Relazione territoriale sulla regione Veneto. (Doc. XXIII, N.17), 1–814
DARA (2017) I dossier delle Città Metropolitane, Città metropolitana di Venezia
EC (2004) Directive 2004/35/EC “Environmental liability directive.” [online] Available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02004L0035-20130718. Accessed 9 May 2019
EC (2007) Directive 2007/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on the assessment and management of flood risks, OJ L288, 6.11.2007, 27 [online] Available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2007:288:0027:0034:en:pdf. Accessed 9 May 2019
EC (2009) Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the voluntary participation by rganisations in a community eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS)
EC (2010) COM(2010) 581 final - Under Article 14(2) of directive 2004/35/CE on the environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage, [online] Available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52010DC0581&from=EN. Accessed 9 May 2019
EC (2013) COM(2013) 213 final - GREEN PAPER on the insurance of natural and man-made disasters, [online] Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/finance/insurance/consumer/natural-catastrophes/index_en.htm. Accessed 9 May 2019
EC (2016a) COM(2016) 204 final - Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament under Article 18(2) of directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage., Brussels. [online] Available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52016DC0204&from=EN. Accessed 9 May 2019
EC (2016b) SWD(2016) 121 final - REFIT Evaluation of the environmental liability directive, Brussels. [online] Available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52016SC0121&from=EN. Accessed 9 May 2019
EC (2017) Multi-annual ELD work programme (MAWP) for the period 2017–2020. Making the environmental liability directive more fit for purpose
Faglia G (2010) Le soluzioni assicurative del mercato italiano, [online] Available from: https://www.anra.it/documents/335. Accessed 9 May 2019
Fasoli E (2017) The possibilities for nongovernmental organizations promoting environmental protection to claim damages in relation to the environment in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal. Rev Eur Comp Int Environ Law 26(1):30–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12187
Goisis F, Stefani L (2016) The polluter-pays principle and site ownership: the European jurisprudential developments and the Italian experience. J Eur Environ Plan Law 13(2):218–237. https://doi.org/10.1163/18760104-01302006
Italian Parliament (2006) D. Lgs 152/2006 (Environmental Code), Italy. [online] Available from: http://www.bosettiegatti.eu/info/norme/statali/2006_0152.htm. Accessed 9 May 2019
Kossoff D, Dubbin WE, Alfredsson M, Edwards SJ, Macklin MG, Hudson-edwards KA (2014) Applied geochemistry mine tailings dams: characteristics, failure, environmental impacts, and remediation, Appl. Geochemistry 51:229–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2014.09.010
Lemkowska M (2018) Environmental liability directive call for development of financial instruments: the issue of compulsory insurance. Ekon i Prawo Econ ans Law 17(4):383–403. https://doi.org/10.12775/EiP.2018.028
Luino F, De Graff J (2012) The Stava mudflow of 19 July 1985 (Northern Italy): a disaster that effective regulation might have prevented. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 12(4):1029–1044. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-12-1029-2012
Mackie C (2014) The regulatory potential of financial security to reduce environmental risk. J Environ Law 26:189–214. https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/equ014
Mechler R, Bouwer LM, Linnerooth-Bayer J, Hochrainer-Stigler S, Aerts JCJH, Surminski S, Williges K (2014) COMMENTARY: managing unnatural disaster risk from climate extremes. Nat Clim Chang 4:235–237
Pedraza J, De Smedt K and Faure M (2004) Compulsory financial guarantees for environmental damage: What can we learn from Spain? 1–17
Poole L (2014) A calculated risk: how donors should engage with risk financing and transfer mechanisms, Oecd Dev Co-Operation Work Pap 17. https://doi.org/10.1787/5jz122cn65s6-en
Pouikli KC (2016) Overview of the implementation of the directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage at European level. Desalin Water Treat 57(25):11520–11527. https://doi.org/10.1080/19443994.2015.1101620
Simeoni C and Bellagamba S (2010) Environmental liability as a prevention tool: a GIS application, in Risks challenging publics, scientists and governments - selected and revised papers from the annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis-Europe, pp 211–214. [online] Available from: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84859616896&partnerID=40&md5=f04de4d0092dacade86c2e48848e15e4. Accessed 9 May 2019
Simeoni L, Tosatti G, Lucchi G, Longo M (2017) The Stava catastrophic failure of July 19, 1985 (Italy): technical-scientific data and socioeconomic aspects, City Saf. Energy J - Plan L Saf (1):17–30
Tanega J (1996) Implications of environmental liability on the insurance industry. J Environ Law 8(1):115–138
UNI (2015) UNI EN ISO 14001:2015 - Environmental managememnt system, doi:ICS 13.020.10
Vitturi A (2011) Atlante Geologico della Provincia di Venezia. [online] Available from: http://difesasuolo.provincia.venezia.it/DifesaSuolo/Index?pagina=1&id=elenco_pubblicazionidett&xslP1=/cms/dinamico/provincia/uffici/difesa-suolo/pubblicazioni/atlante_geologico. Accessed 9 May 2019
Zweifel P (1994) Environmental impairment liability as an instrument of environmental policy. Ecol Econ 11:43–56
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the experts of the insurance and financial sectors for sharing their knowledge and experiences. They are also grateful to the Environmental Policy Department of the Metropolitan City of Venice for the data support.
Funding sources
This work was supported by the European Commission under the GREEN project, “Green infrastructures for disaster risk reduction protection: evidence, policy instruments and marketability (CHO/SUB/2016/740172/PREV18).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Additional information
Responsible editor: Eyup Dogan
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Staccione, A., Mysiak, J., Ostoich, M. et al. Financial liability for environmental damage: insurance market in Italy, focus on Veneto region experience. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 25749–25761 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05821-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05821-8