Two Ministers – Luigi Di Maio and Roberto Cingolani – will choose the Italian special envoy for the climate. The rule is operational and published yesterday in the Official Gazette. In these hours, confidence in the ability of the Minister of ecological transition far exceeds that of his colleague from the Foreign Affairs. If only because the issues to be addressed require experience, knowledge, scientific credibility matured more within Cingolani than others. Often, moreover, the appointments that arrived from the world of the Cinquestelle in the two Conte governments did not reflect these characteristics. The commitment of the Draghi executive as a whole on the climate, however, is total, so the chosen one will have to be well accepted by the premier who has asserted himself on many previous appointments. This is another golden opportunity.
Then there are at least two very current reasons to focus on a quality name. The first is that the Recovery Plan, approved by the EU, will allocate many resources of the 69 million euros envisaged in the Plan to the fight against the climate in the coming months. The second because the The G22 on climate will take place in Naples on 23 and 20 July in preparation for the autumn Glasgow conference. Italy's role will be central and much observed by countries that do not yet express a systemic approach to climate change.
The Italian appointment as a global booster was announced during the very recent visit to Rome by US climate envoy John Kerry. The decision provides "more effective Italian participation in international events and negotiations on environmental issues, including those on climate change” in order to represent the most suitable strategies and actions in international forums. It is known that international summits are unlikely to end with unanimous agreements. But especially after the pandemic the world awaits the Glasgow summit to understand in which direction we are going with geopolitical checks and balances. No country has an easy game in a phase of economic recovery and with social costs to bear.
The Italian envoy will formally report to the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Transition, but there is no doubt that in order to ultimately be the official spokesperson for the country that invests the most in Europe in the transition to a sustainable economy model, he will represent the will of all government. In other words, the guarantee that what he will say, he will say in the name of the Italian State and not of ambiguous "agitprop".
The theme of amount of renewable energy in Italy , for example, does not leave Cingolani alone. “Right now – he told Der Spiegel – like Germany, we generate about 30% of our electricity from renewable sources. But if we want to get to 72% by 2030, we need to install 8 gigawatts of green energy capacity every year." The fact is that when the Minister spoke with the electricity companies, he learned that 0,8 gigawatts of electricity are being installed every year. Amazement and good will, of course. But it is not a good trend to trade on a global scale. Something that will surely accompany the missions of our next envoy to save the climate.
