Sun, Feb 16 2025 16 February, 2025

Energy and climate plan of Italy’s Meloni slammed by industry, NGOs

The Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni continues to see a key role for natural gas in the country’s energy mix

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (Photo: Wiki Commons/European Union)

As well as keeping natural gas central, Meloni’s government has revised down its renewable ambitions in its latest Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), a move that represents a major setback in the country’s climate efforts, lobby groups and environmentalists said.

In the final version of the NECP, which it was mandated to file to the EU Commission by the end of June, the right-wing Meloni government set a target of 70% renewables generation in the electricity mix by 2030, equivalent to 63% of gross domestic electricity consumption, with total installed capacity reaching 131 GW by 2030.

This is lower than what was indicated in the first draft of the NECP submitted to the EU, which had set a target of 73% renewables in the generation mix, equivalent to 65% of gross domestic consumption.

Renewable targets have been “inexplicably reduced” and the plan seems to downplay the role of increased electrification of energy systems, Agostino Re Rebaudengo, the president of lobby group Elettricita’ Futura, told Gas Outlook.

According to the industry body, Italy should target 145 GW of installed renewable capacity to 2030 to align with the goals of the REPowerEU plan, with much of the new capacity represented by utility-scale installations.

That means the country has the potential to reach 84% renewables in the generation mix by 2030.

The NECP should have focused on the deployment of “the most competitive technologies already available to produce renewable electricity, thus pushing for electrification of (energy) consumption,” he said.

This is the “most effective route to reaching costs and emissions and therefore pollution in cities and to contrast climate change.”

The plan also appears to overstate the role of nuclear power in the future energy mix, given technologies such as Small Modular Reactors will become ecumenically viable at scale in a decade’s time, he said.

The NECP was slammed by a number of environmental organisations, including WWF Italia, Greenpeace Italia, Kyoto Club, Legambiente and Transport&Environment, which in a joint statement said the plan was “irrational” in its reliance on gas and nuclear, and it failed to set clear CO2 reduction targets.

According to an analysis by ECCO Climate, Italy will exceed its decarbonisation targets by 100MtCO2eq, resulting in 15 billion euros in extra costs for the state.

The plan also fails to set a clear pathway for the phase-out of fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, amid the country’s longstanding dependence on imports.

This risks leading to investments that are “incoherent with domestic and European energy needs,” it said.

Pipeline capacity

Particularly controversial is the objective to double capacity on the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which carries gas from Azerbaijan to Southern Italy, to increase South to North gas flows capacity through the new Adriatic Line and the mention of the EastMed-Poseidon pipeline project as a new route for gas supplies to Italy, as well as plans for the new LNG import terminals of Gioia Tauro and Porto Empedocle in Southern Italy.

These projects don’t seem to take into account the expected decline in gas demand and could lead to “stranded assets” risks in the future, the think tank warned.

Italian gas demand declined over 10% year on year in 2023, to around 61 billion cubic meters, most of which was imported. Algeria alone supplied 23 bcm of gas, becoming Italy’s top supplier.

According to the NECP, Eastern Mediterranean gas from Israel, Cyprus and Egypt could have a key role for Italy’s regional “gas hub” ambitions.

Italy is also involved in the SoutH2 Corridor for hydrogen flows to Austria and Germany, which hinges on importing green hydrogen from North Africa.

Aside from the NECP, the recent “suitable areas” decree and “agriculture” decrees issued by the government further contributed to slow down renewable deployment in Italy, Re Rebaudengo said, with the former giving powers to regional authorities to ban renewable installations that are less than 7 km from a conservation area, and the latter imposing more stringent rules on solar PV installations on agricultural areas.

xxxxxxx