The climate plan and the energy ambiguity
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Good climate, minus energy. Insiders have been squabbling for hours over the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec) that the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security sent to Brussels at the end of last week, just in time to meet the June 30 deadline. To tell the truth, a succinct 24-page summary was sent to Brussels, while the actual Plan is 455. A summary that cannot necessarily go into detail, and for this reason there are those, like the experts at Ecco , the Italian think tank for the climate, has decided to suspend the proceedings, waiting for the complete version of the Pniec to be read, apparently by the first half of July. Yet even in theexecutive summary sent to the European Commission, it is possible to identify strengths and weaknesses which will then probably be found in the actual Plan.
The interview
Minister Pichetto Fratin: “In 2030, two thirds of energy will come from renewables. But gas will accompany us until 2050”
by Jaime D’Alessandro
“We see the will to decisively direct policies towards the reduction of CO emissions2“, confirms Chiara Di Mambro, head of decarbonization policies at Ecco. “The approach has changed compared to the 2019 version of the Pniec, a plan that is clearly too optimistic and inadequate. It is good that we have taken note of the delays and the unfeasible policies of that document and that we want to review them. However, no univocal plan emerges on how to put decarbonisation into practice in order to respect the commitments made by Italy in the European context and those even more stringent at the G7 level”. The ambiguity, once again, concerns the energy chapter. Agostino Re Rebaudengo, president of Elettricità Futura, the branch of Confindustria that brings together the main Italian electricity companies, summarizes it as follows: “According to the information available, the target of new renewable power indicated in the new Pniec foresees that Italy will install around 8 new GW of renewables per year, between now and 2030. The plan drawn up by us at Elettricità Futura instead calls for the installation of 10 GW of renewables per year. However, both prospects require a clear acceleration, a doubling of the current pace: probably, in 2023 we will be able to install only 5 GW of new renewables in Italy”.
The case
The Plan for Energy and Climate (Pniec) presented in Brussels does not convince environmentalists
by Cristina Nadotti
parallel theexecutive summary of the Pniec confirms that the Italian government wants to focus, very and very long, on natural gas. “The phase-out of coal will be implemented through, among other things, the construction of additional gas-fired thermoelectric units, also necessary for maintaining the adequacy of the system in the presence of the strong increase in the share of non-programmable renewables in electricity generation “, reads the summary sent to Brussels. “Added to this is the development of further gas interconnection infrastructures for the diversification of supplies, as well as the strengthening of the regasification capacity and the relative supply of LNG (liquefied natural gas), of particular importance also in terms of energy security”. And further on: “To facilitate supply from the southern Mediterranean corridor in reverse flow, the construction of the Adriatic Line and developments on the internal network for the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) are essential, also in terms of European safety… The Italian energy system is highly interconnected with the rest of Europe and benefits from an advantageous geographical position and a well-developed infrastructure that can lead the country to position itself as a hub in the Mediterranean, becoming a point of injection of gas and channeling it to other European countries (such as, for example, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia), also through the strengthening of some cross-border and internal infrastructures”. Finally: “… to meet the needs of modernizing the transport network and guarantee a more efficient, resilient and secure network in the near future, the replacement of methane pipelines which have now reached the end of their useful life is planned. These pipelines will also be hydrogen ready, therefore useful in the long term for the transport of hydrogen”.
Power
“Checkmate for renewables 2023”: the map of the plants blocked by bureaucracy in Italy
So large investments are announced in the “cleanest of fossil fuels”, with the construction of new gas pipelines and the modernization of existing ones. In this sense, the reconversion for the distribution of hydrogen is mentioned even if it is the same executive summary he is very vague about the energy strategy linked to this clean gas. And it is probable that the future of natural gas will be at the center of the tug-of-war between the government and the European Commission on the Pniec. “The EU has no veto power over the Plan, it can only make recommendations”, explains Chiara Di Mambro. “But if funds from the Pnrr or Repower Eu are to be used to implement the Pniec, then Brussels can intervene by asking for changes”. And perhaps denying the green light to new investments in fossil infrastructure with European money. But to find out, both EU technicians and analysts at home will have to wait a few more days: the time necessary for the editing and translation into English of the 455 pages that make up the Pniec 2023.
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