Italy pushes on the green economy and on renewables, obtaining respectable results, despite the fact that few take it into consideration. This is what emerges from the "Report on the state of the green economy 2016 - outlook on Italy for 2017" presented by the Foundation for Sustainable Development during the event organized in Rome by ING Italia to celebrate its ten years of commitment in the sector of renewable energies.
The study compared the green economy performances of the main European economies (Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom). Well, Italy showed the best performance overall, ranking first ahead of Germany and the United Kingdom. In particular, the sectors of renewables, waste management/circular economy and quality agri-food production stood out.
However, Italy registers an inadequate "green perception" at an international level among experts and decision makers, ranking only 29th among 80 countries, while in terms of actual performance, it gains 15th position (Source: Dual Citizen "Global Green Economy Index).
In detail, Italy suffers from a significant deficit on some specific aspects, including leadership and climate change, despite the good results achieved. Conversely, countries such as Germany record levels of green perception that are better than the performances actually achieved.
The report also highlights that, despite the slowdown recorded in the renewable energy sector since 2013, Italy is the only large European economy to have reached the 2020 target five years early. According to Eurostat, in fact, in 2015 in Italy on 17,5 .XNUMX% of energy consumption is covered by renewables, a higher value than those recorded in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Italy also presents interesting performances in terms of energy efficiency, with an energy intensity of GDP second only to that of the United Kingdom, also thanks to certainly favorable climatic conditions and an economic structure.
Another important aspect underlined by the report is the growth of the involvement of the credit and finance sector. This is a particular sector of the economy, with a natural propensity to evaluate its strategies going beyond the short and medium term and therefore inclined to reduce exposure to risks related to climate change, including those associated with investments in highly polluting technologies .
With this in mind, ING in Italy has achieved an exposure to the sector as a whole of approximately 600 million euros over the course of ten years. At the same time, the group of Dutch origins funds projects that accelerate the transition of corporate clients towards greater sustainability of their business and supporting those subjects who develop solutions to the challenges posed by the social and environmental context.
In the solar photovoltaic sector, for example, the exposure of the wholesale banking division of ING Italia through the Structured Finance department has increased tenfold since 2011, the year of the first deal, for a limited commitment worth around 20 million, coming close in 2016 to 200 million euros. The group of Dutch origins, at the end of 2016, had a total exposure of the Sustainable Real Estate Financing area in Italy equal to 520 million euros, corresponding to 30% of the total portfolio.
Thanks to the results obtained in the field of sustainability at a global level, in 2016 the ING group gained first place, out of 395 listed banks considered, in the ranking drawn up by Sustainalytics, leader in sustainability research. ING also achieved a score of 90 out of 100 on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), against an industry average score of 61.
