The lack of water is not just a concern for farmers and companies that use electricity from traditional sources. There water shortage – despite the repercussions of the floods in Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and the Marches – it has not escaped economic observers. The Cassa Depositi e Prestiti analysts they examined what happened in 2022 and in the first months of 2023. A socio-economic assessment of a resource on which we continue to intervene in a disjointed way. In a meeting specifically on "Water availability and energy production: risks for the transition?" Economists have outlined a scenario that may never see Italy in the first places for the green transition. It is evident that climatic changes affect production, trade, purchases and many other things. They question the ability of social and natural systems to adapt to the follies of the climate. But stay put or venture in flat theorists to keep development and national identity together (uncontainable abuse of the right) without opening construction sites, is ridiculous and humiliating. Cdp's analysis studies the damage caused by climate change on thehydroelectric energy. The availability of this clean source decreases from year to year and in the medium term the trend could affect the entire transition process. Hence the problem of the safety of the Italian electricity system and the uncertainties about the future "which is based on the development of some low-carbon emission technologies that require large quantities of water".
Energy: drinking water has no infrastructure
You're wrong if you notice the backlight in the studio lack of infrastructure and the indecisions of the government and the Regions in building water storage systems? No. "Enhancement of water storage capacity, maintenance and modernization of existing hydroelectric plants could help mitigate these risks" responded the Cdp analyses. “There is a problem of infrastructure and maintenance of the territory” the minister said in Emilia Romagna Matteo Salvini. “Dams, blocked for too many years, are needed. The territory must be infrastructured and made safe". Well, when does it start? Where are the projects and how long will they take to complete? We don't know and often we even doubt the willingness of the teams of experts alongside the government to organize the best answers. 2022 was the hottest and least rainy year in the last two centuries; even the data for the first months of 2023 show snowfall at historic lows. In addition to increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, the climate change, by modifying the average values of temperature and rainfall, it makes the water flows more and more irregular. “The water requirement grows with the risk of create tensions about the different possibilities use of water. To guarantee water security it is necessary to reorganize the water storage system in an optimal way and infrastructural upgrades are necessary” argue in the CDP. And we know that the Cassa can invest. An example is the Green IT – 51% by Plenitude (Eni) and 49% by CDP Equity – which is planning investments for 1,7 billion euros in renewables. The Minister of Infrastructure should know this.
The help of the Climate Plan…. When it will arrive?
The crazy climate has reduced the electricity produced with water from 15-20% to 10%: the lowest value since 1950. At this point the conclusion of the analysts of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti joins other similar ones on the'absence of the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change that the government does not unlock. No one is discussing the respectability of the environment minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. He has undertaken to present the Plan by 30 June and we await him with great interest in order to understand the country's environmental destiny. Seen from the right, of course, with scandalous precedents on building amnesties, special laws, the demolition of offices, excess gas. However, that Plan, the analysts point out, "pending approval, could be an important tool for reducing the risks deriving from climate change and improving the adaptive capacity of socio-economic and natural systems". Hydroelectric plants are part of the energy history of Italy and Europe. To take them back they move the big European companies, while on the existing reservoirs it is possible to increase the accumulation volumes, reduce the quantity of sediments transported by the rivers, clean them also for hygienic-environmental issues. Hydroelectric energy offers security and integrates with other renewables, remind the Cdp. A clarification that is good for those who have to decide what to do.
