Why did the Scientific Committee Insularity in Constitution file a complaint with the Sardinian Public Prosecutor's Office against wind projects?
Maria Antonietta Mongiu (archaeologist and former regional councilor for Culture): «Because the very foundation of insularity is Sardinia. Before, during and after the amendment of the Constitution we organized thematic conferences on the protection of the landscape or landscapes. What is happening on the Island today violates the pact for future generations with large-scale devastation: it is illegitimate. We are for the energy transition and support the institutions, but we think it is necessary to examine the authorization procedures, starting from what involves the entire administrative chain, not just the political one. A complaint to the judiciary was necessary so that it could implement actions to identify those responsible, to shine a light on those who have not observed European and constitutional standards, from the European landscape and Aarhus conventions to the principles of the Constitution. We were also heard by the judicial police on behalf of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Nuoro».
Giuseppe Biggio (former director of the Regional Landscape Planning Service): «In this affair there is a total lack of respect for the fundamental principles of the Constitution and European agreements. The Aarhus Convention establishes cornerstones for the protection of citizens: the right to access environmental information held by the Administrations; the right to participate and share choices that have environmental implications; the right to appeal if the first two points are not respected. It has been signed by 47 countries, including Italy. In 2006, the Italian State approved decree 152 which introduces the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). What does it say? It is based on the same fundamental principles of Aarhus. It establishes that the proponent presents a project or a plurality of ideas and the population of the area on which they fall has a fundamental role in the choice, it is mandatory to involve them. It is clear that if this fundamental step of guaranteeing public sharing is missing from the outset, what follows in cascade is ineffective. Article 11 states that in the absence of a SEA the act is always voidable. Europe has never allowed derogations from fundamental principles, instead the Draghi decree did, which imposes an unregulated race for alternative energy. How can these fundamental principles be overridden by a private interest? Here is a concrete example: the decree of June 2024 by Minister Pichetto Fratin establishes that Sardinia must produce at least 6.2 gigawatts from renewable sources by 2030, more or less three times the regional requirement. It is a timetable and as such it should have followed the SEA process, so it can be cancelled even today".
Giuseppe Pulina (Provost Rector of the University of Sassari): «Principles defend values, the European Union and our Constitutional Charter assimilate the territory to a weak subject, because it is a stratification of memories and not a place from which to extract economic value to the detriment of future generations. In Sardinia, 258 local agricultural landscapes have been surveyed, very fine tiles that make up the mosaic. They cannot be upset by permanent interventions that lead to an alteration. This plot should have been studied in depth to identify any landscape and environmental compatibility with renewable energy plants. It simply has not been done because the regional landscape plan has not been extended to the internal areas. In a situation like this, cultural vandalism takes shape. Fortunately, the regulations that are in place allow us to protect the weak subject: the landscape».
Gianvalerio Sanna (engineer and former regional councilor for Urban Planning): «The scientific committee's approach to this issue began with the request to extend the PPR to internal areas. Ours is a precise choice because it includes all the conceptual elements of the so-called community law, including the precautionary principle. What is it? The prevention of irreversibility, because what becomes 90 percent irreversible is harmful. The Urbani Code specifies it: the rules of landscape planning cannot be derogated from plans or programs, even sectoral ones, and the energy plan is. As a Region with a special statute, we hold the primary competence in the regulation of landscape-environmental matters. The Constitutional Court reiterates this. So we went to examine the legal validity of our thesis, which was also an offer of support - rejected - to the regional government for the protection of its prerogatives. If there is a risk of environmental disaster, the only entity that can verify the correctness of the investigations of individual projects is the judicial authority, the Prosecutors can ascertain whether these procedures have a constitutional basis. Our complaint is an extraordinary aid to the protection of the territory".
A concrete example of “environmental fallout so impactful as to upset the territory”?
Mongiu: «The landscape of Mount Arci which has the most important obsidian generating nuclei in the Mediterranean and Europe right on its skin. There, wind turbines were authorized but never started working, an outrage that has remained without a culprit, that portion of Sardinia has changed into a post-industrial landscape without having gone through industrial planning. But if a citizen opens an unauthorized window on the terrace, he immediately ends up in front of a judge».
Biggio: «Which lands are most attacked by photovoltaic systems? Obviously the most fertile ones in the plains, I am thinking of Campidano, a simpler and less expensive solution that erases the heart of agricultural civilization. It is an effect of the lack of planning. In Macchiareddu instead the lands intended for industrial activities have been covered with wind turbines and panels causing obvious damage: they have been taken away from the actual production of companies despite the urbanization and infrastructure paid for with taxpayers' money».
Pulina: «Why can't I build a skyscraper in Rome? Because that skyline, that visual value, is protected. Instead, the Campeda plateau, which with the Meriagos has one of the most characteristic landscapes of Sardinia, has a skyline broken by a series of wind turbines that alter it irreparably. Nurra has been totally disfigured by post-industrialization with renewable sources. A clarification on agrivoltaics is necessary: it cannot and must never obscure the main production of a company, it should be placed on the roofs, on the warehouses. If the idea of goats grazing under the panels or bees living with the heat islands produced by the plants were to pass, all without a study, the fields would become the cemetery of biodiversity».
Sanna: «It should have been said honestly to the Sardinians that at this moment there are no networks to transfer the surplus production off the island. Today only those who collect royalties for the exchange on site earn, even if the energy will not be used, speculation is only aimed at this. And then 6.2 gigawatts is the minimum we must produce, the maximum is the over 800 requests for new plants: where do we want to stop? The damage is there, the citizens can evaluate it».
Do you think that an initiative of this kind, with the re-examination of all the concessions, is compatible with the timing of justice?
Mongiu: «Ten of us have signed this complaint, many others could have signed it. We have absolute faith in the judiciary, and we are concerned that the Attorney General Patronaggio at the inauguration of the judicial year speaks of the risk of mafia infiltration in wind investments. The interest of Sardinia is at the center of our complaint, a reasoning of a group of citizens beyond political alignments. How many infiltrations are there? Where? I think the disaster is already underway, but we will be able to stop it».
Biggio: «We have seen first-hand the popular mobilization of the Sardinians regarding these problems, I trust in the judiciary that is certainly capable of grasping the scope of the complaint. The landscape is the set of transformations that man has brought to nature, how is it possible that it can be distorted by mere private interests? The scope of this complaint deserves a fast track to block the damage on the territory».
Pulina: «The complaint enters forcefully into a debate polarized by prejudices. It is a set of questions hinged on a procedure that defends the value of the landscape with the legal cornerstones. A new season will have to be opened with a debate on the facts. The procedures were not followed, why? Are there any responsibilities?».
Sanna: «The very content of the appeal is the measure of the trust we have in the judiciary. We suggest the hypothesis of the environmental disaster, which ties the officials to their responsibilities, cancelled instead by the abolition of the crime of abuse of office».
Who made mistakes? The ministry, the Region, the Municipalities?
Mongiu: «There is a point at which each of us reaches the maximum possible incompetence and, in order not to admit it, we turn away. It is the duty of public administration officials to stay on legitimate tracks without being subject to the power of the politician of the moment, instead often the distinctive trait is ancillary».
Biggio: «Politics certainly has its responsibilities, but the technicalities are the responsibility of the administrative structure. There is always someone responsible who declares the legitimacy of an act».
Pulina: «We need to understand who polluted the wells. The historical blame lies with the standard-bearers of lies, those who pass off as necessity – this also applies to a certain idea of renewable energy – what is not a necessity».
Sanna: «To make up for its delay, the Government has unloaded a decree on the Regions that, in the name of simplification, erodes rights. The Regions also have a responsibility because they had to evaluate the effects of the decree that establishes the amount of energy to be produced and they did not do so. In this path, not only speculation is hidden – which is somehow protected – but also the businesses that follow the same path.
Enrico Fresu
Paul Paolini
Roberto Ripa