ISPRA transforms sustainable finance from a regulatory obligation to a competitive opportunity with the new “Platform for the Sustainability of Finance and Business” .Based on the 2024 technical document "The Environmental Challenge for Sustainable Finance," the new tool introduces scientifically validated key environmental indicators that allow businesses, financial institutions, and SMEs to rigorously calculate direct and indirect emissions (greenhouse gases and pollutants), various types of impacts, and physical risks.
The digital platform will be operational and made available to users after summer 2026 .
The new sustainable digital platform
The device automates the generation of the indicators required by the legislation and allows the download of reports in standardized formats, ensuring full interoperability with the ESAP (European Single Access Point).By offering a free operational sustainability laboratory, ISPRA supports businesses and SMEs in responding to the growing data demands of banks and other stakeholders , facilitating access to capital and promoting a culture of sustainability based on scientific validity.
Climate change and energy transition
In the coastal and maritime sector, ongoing climate change and the issues posed by the energy transition represent significant challenges for the business world to be addressed with medium- to long-term investments and strategies.Recent extreme weather events affecting our coasts and damaging infrastructure, first and foremost Cyclone Harry, have highlighted the need for adequate tools for environmental risk assessment, both for businesses and for the financial and insurance sectors that support their development through credit and risk coverage policies.
ISPRA's tools. IdroGEO, at the service of businesses
With the aim of increasing the resilience of the Italian production system to physical risks related to landslides and floods, ISPRA is making the IdroGEO National Platform available to businesses, the insurance industry, and the financial sector. This open-source, open-data web application, also accessible via smartphone, allows for the consultation, analysis, and sharing of maps and indicators on hydrogeological instability. This data is playing an increasingly important role in the insurance requirements for businesses against risks arising from catastrophic events and in the assessment and management of financial risks (credit, market, operational) associated with the economic impact of extreme natural events.With the Check Hazard function , IdroGEO allows you to search for an address or geolocate yourself on a map, identify the level of danger for landslides and floods within a 500-meter radius of the point of interest and print a report.
With the Scenario Calculation , it is possible to estimate the population, families, buildings and businesses at risk of hydrogeological disasters on a portion of territory circumscribed by a polygon drawn by the user.
The first feature is aimed at promoting greater awareness among entrepreneurs of the risks affecting the territory and making informed decisions about where to locate new economic or production activities.
The second is a decision support system for identifying the size of companies exposed in areas of interest to the manufacturing world.
IdroGEO uses Artificial Intelligence, through a virtual assistant that communicates with the user, providing information and answering questions about hydrogeological instability.
ISPRA's tools. MER, a platform that maps the Italian coasts
ISPRA, through the MER (PNRR Marine Ecosystem Restoration Project) information platform , which includes the complete mapping of the entire Italian coast and the observation system consisting of coastal and offshore buoy networks, coastal radar antennas and forecasting models, can make an important contribution to the assessment of environmental risk and the planning of works aimed at its mitigation .In the maritime sector, the energy transition presents shipowners with complex objectives, particularly regarding the fuels to be used.
All this in the context of the application of ETS certificates to the maritime sector, with significant consequences that are not always consistent with the long-standing sustainable mobility objectives, such as the development of motorways of the sea and related intermodal systems. In this context, the application of large-scale marine-coastal habitat restoration protocols and the estimate of CO2 capture in the coastal zone conducted by ISPRA as part of the MER project represent a starting point for adapting and updating the overall strategy on climate-altering emissions in the maritime sector. (Source: https://www.isprambiente.gov.it/ )