Ambiente e digitalizzazione: l’adattamento ai cambiamenti climatici tra precauzione e nuove tecnologie

The Covid-19 pandemic crisis has had, among its many effects, that of aggravating the overall economic condition of the eurozone. The result of the exacerbation of an already critical situation was the elaboration of the now well-known 'Next Generation EU', proposed by the European Commission in May 2020, which is part of a project path already started by the European institutions, giving it, due to the amount of funds made available, a phenomenal acceleration. The two main pillars of the transition, which in the European Project find an opportunity to be profitably combined, are represented by the digital transition and the ecological transition. In this sense, it can be said, digital innovation and ecology are complementary aspects of the same evolutionary path. The vast majority of studies concerning the relationship between technological innovation and green transition, moreover, emphasize the fundamental role that public authorities will increasingly assume. Therefore, the present work sets itself the general objective of investigating, within the broad theme that has been identified, the relationship that exists between digital innovation in public administration and the so-called 'green transition'. In particular, given that this latter theme is indeed a container of transversal issues that are difficult to summarize in a single place, we have chosen to pursue this objective firstly from a general point of view, identifying the deep legal guidelines, and secondly, within a specific dimension of the green transition: that of adaptation. Climate change indeed has, for decades now, been the subject of a cross-cutting scientific discussion that includes all categories, all classes, all disciplines. For a long time, however, it was posed as a prospective problem related to the futuristic horizon of events. Today, however, the future has come and the consequences of global climate change caused by anthropogenic pollution represent intrinsic factors of our everyday life from which it is no longer possible to ignore, at any level. The risk has now been realized, and the only unknown that remains is whether or not it will be exacerbated. Even if we were able to immediately bring greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere to zero, suddenly eliminating the main cause of global warming, their effects would continue to extrude for many years to come. At the point we are at, in short, while it is certainly essential to direct as much energy as possible to reducing emissions, it is equally important that an adequate amount of resources be directed to the study and implementation of measures to adapt to the inevitable consequences of climate change. The so-called “ecological transition”, therefore, consists of two necessary dimensions: a first related to the transition to a sustainable society from the point of view of pollution; a second, on the other hand, determined by all the necessary interventions in order to reduce the risks to human life and environment itself resulting from the now irremediable effects of climate change on temperatures, precipitation, soil and ecosystems in general. This study, therefore, starting from the aforementioned assumptions, aims to analyze the complex relationship subsisting between risk (especially natural and environmental risk), public functions, along with its principles, and the public use of technologies necessary for adaptation. In particular, the relationship between environmental risk management and the digitization of the public administration will be investigated, identifying, among other things, the well-known legal issue of environmental information as the crux of the matter. The last part of the study will be devoted to the legal analysis, based on what has been deduced above, of the early warning tool called IT-Allert (owned by CIMA Foundation). It is hoped that the theoretical framework prepared will be a useful tool for resolving the main legal issues posed by the use of such instruments.