The Environment Decree flopped. Expected and announced with emphasis as the first tangible start of the Green new deal of the Pd-M5S government immediately broke down on the lack of financial coverage and on the objections - raised by the majority inside and outside - on the measures developed by Minister Sergio Costa. And so the draft of the provision never arrived on the table of Palazzo Chigi where it should have arrived on Thursday 19 for the meeting of the Council of Ministers.
According to the rumors collected by Ansa, the work is now focused on the search for coverage also in view of the 2020 maneuver that the government will have to put in the pipeline. One hypothesis currently being studied would be to use "green auctions" to free up resources (the EU ETS emissions trading system).
But it cannot be hidden that the dissent on some parts of the text goes beyond the theme of covers. In particular, the major objections concern one of the cornerstones of Costa's provision and that is the one on the reduction of environmentally harmful subsidies, calculated at 16,7 billion from the Catalog prepared by the Ministry of the Environment. The first cut - as conceived in the device - was to start as early as 2020; there is talk of a gradual 10% until it is canceled by 2040. 50% of the resources recovered by the state would go to the Ministry of the Economy's ad hoc fund for investments in technology, innovation and sustainable development models. In practice, a "stick" that risks penalizing GDP in a purely punitive key without any "carrot" capable of configuring a real green new deal.
And so if Costa believes that “a radical change of cultural paradigm is needed which leads to the inclusion of environmental protection in our constitutional system” others observe that the radical changes have set Paris on fire, unleashing the Gilets jaunes outcry precisely on the issue of subsidies for the purchase of diesel that Costa would like to abolish in Italy by going hitting road haulage and agriculture, two key sectors for our economy. No one objects to the need to facilitate the transition towards a greener and more sustainable development model, but it is on how to get there that many of the criticisms of the Environment Decree have focused: with what investments, what infrastructures, what incentives do you want to implement it?
Conftrasporto: the road haulage cuts are an own goal. This is the immediate comment of the vice president of Confcommercio and Conftrasporto Paolo Uggè. “Linear cuts involving road haulage would be at least unacceptable: above all because the government would fail to fulfill its commitment to the category. Secondly, because in this way less polluting heavy vehicles such as the Euro 6 would also be penalised, with the only result that trucks of all categories would refuel abroad, with a loss for Italian distribution companies and for cash registers of the state". “If, on the other hand, as we have been proposing for some time – continues Uggé – only the oldest vehicles, therefore the most polluting ones, were penalized, by cutting the refunds of excise taxes on diesel only for these, companies would be pushed to renew the fleet in circulation, with a clear advantage for the environment considering that 60% of the vehicles circulating in Italy are in the category before Euro 4. The automotive sector and the State would also benefit, which would collect VAT on each new generation vehicle purchased”.
The trade unions are also on a war footing. “Unfortunately, there is no 'major confrontation' on the climate decree as declared by the Minister of the Environment Sergio Costa” writes the deputy secretary general of the CGIL, Gianna Fracassi. Even Annamaria Furlan, leader of the Cisl confesses that she was "amazed when I discovered that a decree was already ready and ready in which there are also important and significant choices". On Wednesday, she adds, “the meeting between the government and the unions got off to a very good start but no one mentioned to us that an important decree of this nature was ready”. Both CGIL and CISL are therefore asking for a discussion with the social partners.
The League, from the opposition, shoots zero: "First government measure and first fiscal blow" thunders Massimo Garavaglia, former deputy minister at the MEF, on the draft of the environment law. “I read article 6 of the draft decree and I shudder – explains Garavaglia -: 16,8 billion euros of tax breaks that would be cut. Among these, as stated in the report to the measure, 5,9 billion euros are for 'agriculture and fishing'” underlines Garavaglia who comments: “This tremendous blow is disguised as a 'green' operation, but in reality it also and above all serves to make cash. Only 50% of the amounts deriving from the cuts in tax breaks will be allocated to the fund for the financing of environmental interventions. The remaining 50% will be acquired for the state budget".
By the majority, however, the only voice in support of the measure comes from Leu: "To Minister Costa I say: go ahead and let's work to make the text more ambitious". But it is an isolated voice. And the decree can now be considered defunct, at least in the original version. The halt on hedging arrived from the Ministry of the Economy requires in any case that the new text be agreed with the minister Roberto Gualtieri. "It must be coordinated with the maneuver" imposed the Mef. And not only with that.
