The Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD) it is one of those periodic events where global energy issues are addressed. The 2024 edition arrives as scenarios change from week to week, with geopolitics influencing all economies. The Conference starts today in Berlin and lasts two days. Energy ministers, industrialists, researchers and environmentalists are present. This year the Conference will also feature stories of successful people dedicated to the energy transition. We will try to evaluate the global political framework to encourage the decarbonisation of industry and the economy. Not an easy task because what seemed like prevalent strategies suddenly appear less effective than previously thought.
There are in Berlin 2 thousand participants from 90 countries. But it is now customary at these summits to have such crowded and mixed audiences. We are looking for space for business and financial movements for both renewables and fossil fuels. The Italian Energy Minister finds himself in this astonishing duality Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. that al Berlin Energy signed a trilateral agreement with Germany and Switzerland for gas and a bilateral agreement with Germany
The gas agreement between Italy, Germany and Switzerland
It is a finalized solidarity agreement between states to manage any critical issues regarding gas supplies. The heart of the agreement is the guarantee of supplies for the so-called protected customers: schools, hospitals, military facilities, essential services. In cases of emergency, these facilities cannot take risks. It must be considered that they are already protected by national regulations on gas distribution via tube as “non-interruptible customers” as they say in the company. After the war in Ukraine, certainties in the energy field became like leaves in the wind. Italy, Switzerland and Germany they will, therefore, be part of a single system with the obligation to supply the raw material reciprocally. If the agreement is not respected by one of the partners, an arbitration panel will decide. In short, the agreement does not concern renewables, although Switzerland seems interested in strengthening ties with Italy and Germany for the construction of a pipe lines for the ihydrogen.
“This agreement – declared Pichetto Fratin – provides measures of last resort, with mechanisms for compensation and compliance with the limits of gas transport systems, to be implemented once the measures available at national level have been exhausted, in the event one of the countries is hit by a serious crisis".
At the same time it was also signed a bilateral agreement between Italy and Germany always concerning the supply of natural gas for emergency cases. This was announced by the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security. According to the provisions, Italy, through the Mase, and Germany, through the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate, undertake "to activate, in the event of an emergency, all necessary measures, market and otherwise, in order to provide natural gas to the protected customers of the requesting party, in compliance with the technical safety standards of the gas system of each party".
The agreement with Switzerland and Germany and others to come are welcome. Cohesion between the countries of the union is the only way to maintain a certain relevance on the global scene