Citing data from the Stern report -- a UK commissioned study on the economic impact of climate change -- he estimated damage from global warming cost Italy around 50 billion euros per year.

"The temperature in Italy is rising four times faster than in the rest of the world and our country is more exposed than others to risks of environmental damage and drought," he said.

The average temperature in Italy has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) in the last 50 years, whereas in the whole world the temperature had increased 0.7 degrees in the last 100 years, he said.

He did not specify a source for the data, nor did he explain why Italy was warming faster than the world as a whole.

Drought problems are spreading north from the country's south, and Italy's Alpine glaciers have lost half their volume and 30 percent of their surface in less than a century, Pecoraro Scanio said.

Huge areas of the country's coast risk being submerged by rising sea levels and mountain regions are at growing risk from landslides and floods.

Pecoraro Scanio promised that at the end of the conference he would present a package of measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and limit the damage of climate change to provide Italy with "environment security".