ENEA's role in environmental protection

The 1990-1994 Five-Year Plan of ENEA (the Italian Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment) stipulates that the Agency must reconcile its objectives related to energy with those related to the environment by aiming at a more efficient and rational exploitation of energy sources. This necessity has been reiterated in Italian Law 282/91 which assigns ENEA the task of providing technical and scientific support to the Ministry of the Environment. The aims, work schedule and financing of this task have been laid down in an environmental protection program whose main goals include: the protection and use rationalization of water supplies; the development of waste processing and disposal systems which incorporate energy and materials recovery systems; and the setting up of environmental monitoring networks. Within the framework of these activities, this paper reports on the management and organization aspects of five integrated projects which involve research efforts on: the reduction of the environmental impact of industrial activities; the characterization, status and dynamics of the environment; the interrelationships between environmental quality and the health of human populations; the effects of agricultural-industrial activities on global climate; the effects of human activities on the environmental quality of the Mediterranean Sea