The global energy sector heavily relies on fossil fuels, significantly contributing to climate change. The ambitious European emissions' reduction targets require sustainable processes and alternatives. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of 73 Italian thermal power plants registered to the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) aimed at assessing EMAS effectiveness in addressing and quantifying the environmental impacts of this relevant industrial sector. The analysis was based on EMAS environmental statements, publicly disclosing verified and certified data, with the secondary objective of evaluating if EMAS could be an efficient tool to improve the plants’ environmental performances. An inventory of technical and environmental aspects, adopted indicators, and allocated budgets was based on 2023 data. A strong correlation was found between the significance of the environmental aspects and the number of adopted indicators. Gaps were observed in describing aspects like “biodiversity” and “local issues”. Improvement objectives and budget allocation showed discrepancies and lacked correlation with the significance of the related environmental aspects. “Energy production” accounted for 68% of the total allocated budget; “environmental risks”, “emissions to air”, “electricity consumption”, and “local issues” were also key focus areas. Insufficient information on emission control technologies and progress tracking of improvement objectives was detected. This study highlights the need for thermal power installations to improve the selection of appropriate indicators and to better relate allocated budget to improvement objectives when implementing EMAS. Such measures would facilitate the quantification of the effective environmental impacts of the energy production sector, supporting future research on this topic, allowing stakeholders a better comparison among plants, and driving industry-wide improvements.

中文翻译：

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意大利火力发电厂的环境报告：EMAS 环境声明综合分析的见解


全球能源部门严重依赖化石燃料，极大地加剧了气候变化。雄心勃勃的欧洲减排目标需要可持续的流程和替代方案。本研究对在欧洲生态管理和审计计划 (EMAS) 注册的 73 家意大利火力发电厂进行了全面分析，旨在评估 EMAS 在解决和量化该相关工业部门的环境影响方面的有效性。该分析基于 EMAS 环境声明，公开披露经过验证和认证的数据，次要目标是评估 EMAS 是否可以成为改善工厂环境绩效的有效工具。技术和环境方面的清单、采用的指标和分配的预算均基于 2023 年的数据。环境因素的重要性与采用的指标数量之间存在很强的相关性。在描述“生物多样性”和“当地问题”等方面观察到了差距。改进目标和预算分配存在差异，并且与相关环境方面的重要性缺乏相关性。 “能源生产”占分配预算总额的68%； “环境风险”、“空气排放”、“电力消耗”和“当地问题”也是重点关注领域。发现有关排放控制技术和改进目标进度跟踪的信息不足。这项研究强调了火电装置在实施 EMAS 时需要改进适当指标的选择，并更好地将分配的预算与改进目标联系起来。 此类措施将有助于量化能源生产部门的有效环境影响，支持该主题的未来研究，使利益相关者能够更好地比较工厂，并推动全行业的改进。