Italian voters are deciding whether to limit offshore drilling rights for oil and gas up to 22 kilometers (13 miles) off the coast. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has urged the public not to take part in the referendum.
Image: picture alliance/ROPI
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The poll is being held to decide whether energy companies should be able to keep extracting oil and gas from more than 40 offshore platforms within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers, 13 miles) off the coast until reserves run out.
The alternative would see drilling rights end once current licenses expire up to and including 2034. New drilling concessions are no longer being awarded.
Sunday's poll is part of the Italian public's right to scrap pieces of legislation by referendum, but the outcome is valid only if at least 50 percent of eligible voters take part.
Vote 'not needed'
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he would abstain from voting and urged the public to boycott the poll, arguing that ending drilling rights would increase Italy's dependence on imported energy, which currently stands at 90 percent.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo RenziImage: Getty Images/C. Court
Renzi also warned that 11,000 jobs would be lost and the economy would weaken if the referendum was approved.
The amount of resources at stake is equal to three percent of Italy's annual domestic demand for gas and one percent of annual demand for oil.
Regional power tussle
The referendum was declared after nine regional governments, most of them run by Renzi's own center-left Democratic Party, campaigned to wrest some influence over energy policy from the central government in Rome.
They vowed action in December when Renzi's administration extended all existing 30-year concessions within 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) off the shore until resource exhaustion.
Unlikely to pass
Analysts said that despite the backing of environmental groups and opposition parties, the vote was likely to be declared void due to a low turnout.
But they conceded it would be a blow to Renzi if substantial numbers did turn out, and may be seen as a political snub just weeks before major local elections.
The vote is also seen as a trial run for another referendum due in mid-October, which will see Renzi square off against the same opposition parties over major constitutional reforms he has recently pushed through parliament.
Environmental watchdog Legambiente and other green groups say domestic oil and gas production is minimal and that continued focus on fossil fuels takes Italy further away from its renewable energy and carbon targets.
Polling stations opened at 7 am local time (05:00 UTC) on Sunday and were due to close at 11 pm. The results are likely to be declared within a few hours of polls closing.
Italy: The waste apocalypse
The "triangle of death" is the area north of Naples and south of Caserta. Since the end of the 1980s, toxic waste from all over Europe has been brought, buried, and burned here.
Image: Isabell Zipfel
Campania Felix
Scattered trash near a vegetable field in Orta di Atella. Decades ago, it used to be the most fertile region in Campania, the vegetable garden of Europe. The Romans dubbed the region "Campania Felix" - lucky, or fertile Campania. For centuries, it was extremely popular as a holiday destination.
Image: Isabell Zipfel
Concrete
28 million tons - that's how much toxic waste is deposited here, under vegetable fields, quarries, and unused land areas. But that's only an estimate from authorities, no one knows exactly how much toxic waste is here. But part of the waste is mixed with cement or concrete and systematically used in constructing buildings, highways, and expressways.
Image: Isabell Zipfel
The displaced
On the grounds of the former landfill called Resit in Giugliano. While it's actually forbidden to live here, the Roma were transported here. In order to circumvent the high costs of disposing hazardous waste, industrial companies turned to the Camorra crime syndicate. It offered waste disposal at extremely low prices. The mafia dumped dioxins, arsenic, and even uranium on the land.
Image: Isabell Zipfel
The family
Caivano, is a small city near Casal di Principe, where the feared Casalesi clan has its headquarters. Members of the Casalesi family are thought to be responsible for the contamination of big swathes of Campania.
Image: Isabell Zipfel
Death
Obituaries in an area within the so-called "triangle of death." Here, many more people die of cancer than the country average, and the trend is only increasing. In the last years, tumor-related illnesses tripled here.
Image: Isabell Zipfel
Resistance
Marzia, 40 years old, from Casalnuovo di Napoli. She moved there with her family from Naples, because she wanted to live in a place with better air. Her son Antonio died of cancer at 9. Since then, Marzia has been an activist with Noi genitori di tutti, an organization made up of parents who have lost their children to cancer.
Image: Isabell Zipfel
Water
Regi Lagni, a system of canals, where one used to be able to swim. But the canals were misused as waste disposal facilities and are now severely contaminated. Around 3 million people live In the region, Many moved here in search of better living conditions for themselves and their families. What they found instead was illegally disposed industrial waste.
Image: Isabell Zipfel
Law enforcers
Barrier tape from Corpo Forestale, a police unit investigating environmental crimes. It discovered this dumping ground in Calvi Risorta. With an estimated 2.5 million cubic meters of contaminated materials, it's the largest illegal hazardous waste site in Europe.
Image: Isabell Zipfel
The future
On the grounds of the former Resit dumpsite in Giugliano. Scientists are predicting close to a doomsday scenario in the year 2064, when leachates contaminate the ground water. The region will then become completely polluted and uninhabitable.
Image: Isabell Zipfel
Graffiti
Street art in Caivano. Part of the hazardous waste that's been disposed by industrial cities in the north in Campania resurfaces in the form of contaminated food products. Campania Felix is still among the most important fruit and vegetable producing areas in Italy. What grows here is distributed in supermarket chains all over Europe.
