Italy's environment has witnessed remarkable improvement in recent years, but further moves are still needed, Environment Minister Corrado Clini told Xinhua in an exclusive interview on Monday.

Speaking ahead of the 40th anniversary of the World Environmental Day to be celebrated on Tuesday, Clini said "Italy's environment is getting better because of the new regulations adopted, innovation in technologies, and the change in land use."

"Compared to 20 years ago, Italy has a good environmental quality in the coastal zone, and also in most of its rivers and lakes," he said.

Clini added "many regions of Italy now have high air quality, taking into account the adverse climatic conditions in some of the most industrialized ones - such as Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Veneto in particular - that affect the air quality in many ways."

In Milan, for example, the problem is more of climate than of pollution. "Regulations for air pollution from industrial activities or transportation are extremely severe, but unfortunately during weeks without wind or rain, pollutants stay in the atmosphere thus are very difficult to remove," he said.

A positive achievement in the environmental protection, the minister added, was a new regulation already adopted for limiting the use of the agricultural land for the production of electricity, photovoltaic industry (PV) included.

However, Clini said Italy still has a lot to do, because there are a number of unsolved problems concerning wastes and water sanitation in the country's southern regions.

In Italy the environmental management, he pointed out, assumes different standards among country's 20 regions.

"This is the reason why there are many regions with high quality standards for the protection of environment, and a number of regions with low quality standards," he said.

Such differences between regions, Clini added, are generally related to economic conditions and local governance.

"In this context, the minister's role is to improve the environmental quality in those regions that retard and at the same time to harmonize at the national level the standards and requirements for environmental protection," he said.

In Italy, Clini noted, "the most industrialized regions are also those with the highest environmental quality because the industrial activities are well-controlled and well-managed," while low environmental quality is registered in less developed regions.

Clini said the national priority for environmental protection was improving the transportation system for reducing both emissions and traffic congestion. "We have to change the modality of transportation from road to rail and ship, because today some 90 percent of goods and 85 percent of people are on road."

A second priority at the regional level, he added, was improving the waste and wastewater treatment in southern regions. "In Naples, and I hope very soon also in Rome and Palermo, we are encouraging the waste selection, as improving recycle is the best way for reducing the use of landfill and fostering so-called circular economy."

"And then we can also consider how to use part of wastes for generating electricity," the minister said, adding that Italy presently has a small quantity of electricity deriving from wastes.

As in various regions the waste selection and recycling accounts for 70 percent of the total wastes, many of the waste thermal plants in Italy are working with a low capacity, he said.

Clini also added in southern Italy there is no waste-to-energy activity, because of "a lot of problems not only related to the waste-to-energy but also to landfills and in general to waste management."

"This was due to long-lasting lack of local governance combined in some situations with blackmail," he said.

In his view, enhancing cooperation in the technologies development with other countries was an important way to improve global environmental situation.

An "unforgettable" experience in the environmental sector, Clini said, was the positive cooperation with China started in 1999. "I believe that China is working well, in the right direction," he said.