ABSTRACT
The "success" of Italy's economic transformation and its total lack of environmental policy have caused a steep, nationwide decline in environmental quality. Pollution has increased from industries, power plants, traffic, tourism, and mechanized agriculture. Many of the industrial plants in Italy are highly polluting. Heavy industries such as petro-chemical and steel production have spoiled the landscape and polluted the water along the coasts where many plants are located. Underground water is heavily polluted by agrochemicals such as nitrates and pesticides. There are many indicators of this: deficient implementations of environment policy, inefficient laws and standards, and lack of public funds. Italy has a regulatory approach based on fixed nationwide emission standards and not on environmental standards and preventive tools. The government often has to react to "emergencies", spending a lot of money and making bad choices, due to the lack of time for studying better solutions.
