Constant demographic decline and exponentially increasing migration: in 2050, according to Eurostat, Sulcis Iglesiente will be the first territory in Italy for population decrease, losing about a quarter of its current residents. Blame the demographic decline, which in Sulcis is felt more than elsewhere (almost four times more than in the rest of Sardinia), and the negative migratory flows, given that from 2017 to 2019 it worsened by 800 percent. Those who leave in search of opportunities are mainly young people, aged between 18 and 39, at a rate that is almost three times the regional average.
The report
The photograph taken by the Territorial Cohesion Agency as part of the Strategic Environmental Assessment for the Just Transition Fund is gloomy. The JTF is making available one billion euros, between Sulcis and Taranto, for the "just transition", so that the stop to coal is as painless as possible on a social level. The road to funding for Sulcis is paved with negative records and worrying data, which emerged in the Strategic Assessment. First of all: in thirty years, when the population decline in the rest of Italy will be 3.6 per cent, in Sulcis it is expected to be 25.5 per cent. The progressively older population, the low birth rate and emigration draw an alarming scenario. A trend that has already been evident for years: Iglesias and Carbonia are both under 30,000 inhabitants, the smaller towns are losing residents, but forecasts for the next few years tend to worsen drastically. The inhabitants of Sulcis Iglesiente will be getting older: the ratio between the population over 65 and the active population (15-64 years) now at 41.5 percent will more than double in 2050, exceeding 90 percent.
Education is also not good at all: the percentage of Neet (young people who do not study, do not work and do not train) has reached 36.6 percent, furthermore Sulcis Iglesiente is the first Italian province considering the resident population it owns at most the eighth grade.
The work
One of the most alarming data continues to be that on unemployment, also influenced by the crisis of the industrial system: in Portovesme many chimneys are off, with an explosion of mobility and layoffs. In 2016, according to the report of the Territorial Cohesion Agency, the unemployment rate was 16.1 per cent while youth unemployment is even more alarming which in 2019, in the province of South Sardinia, was 44 per cent, i.e. double the national level. A difficult situation that affects the average per capita income: Sulcis Iglesiente is in 104th place out of 110 provinces, 35 percent of taxpayers declare less than 10 thousand euros. At the municipal level, the centers with the highest average income (from 2015 to 2018) are Portoscuso, Carloforte, Iglesias and Carbonia, the lowest average income in Piscinas, Masainas and Perdaxius. The propensity to innovate is also very low, in one of the poorest areas in Italy: there are just 3 innovative start-ups for every 1,000 companies.
It is in this fragile socio-economic situation that the ecological transition takes place, with the stop to coal. A transition that began in 2018 with the official end of mining at Carbosulcis, while in 2025 the Enel plant will stop. Sulcis and Taranto have one billion available from the Just Transition Fund, to limit the social consequences of the transition. Presented the cards about a year ago, we still do not know which projects are financed, the proposals on which to focus in order to move beyond coal.
Antonella Pani
