The race for fossil fuels has slowed down but continues all over the world. Rising oil prices have allowed for the recovery of investments and the energy transition towards a zero CO2 economy will take an estimated time in the horizon of 2030-2040 at least to arrive in 2050 towards a "decarbonised" planet. Meanwhile, drilling and new projects also affect Italy and the Mediterranean, from the Adriatic to the Ionian Sea, from Basilicata to Sicily. A picture that Legambiente considers worrying. That's why the environmental association asks that "the Italian government be consistent with the commitments signed in Paris by focusing on efficiency and renewables, canceling subsidies to fossil fuels".
In truth, Legambiente is proposing to the government to "direct also the choices of Eni", a group which - it should be remembered - is listed on the Stock Exchange and controlled by the State for about 30%. The remaining part of the capital is in the hands of savers and investors, including foreign ones, who are asking the national energy giant to do its job in the best possible way and thus maximize shareholder returns. This could coincide with a push towards renewable activities which are certainly the trend towards which to strive but the timing for action is one of the key management factors which is the responsibility of management.
Legambiente, however, wanted to see clearly and presented a dossier on Eni's activities with this summary comment: “Many announcements and few investments in renewables. The company has only installed 1 MW of solar PV."
While on the one hand, underlines Legambiente, Eni is making important investments to increase the extraction of hydrocarbons from the subsoil, few are those concerning the development of renewables in all the countries in which it operates. To date, out of 71 countries, 15 are those in which Eni has started or concluded the implementation of projects from renewable sources, implementing only 10% of the four-year plan. In Italy, on the other hand, there are 14 projects planned by 2022 and distributed in 12 regions, for a total capacity of around 220 MW of solar energy. The only photovoltaic plant that has come into operation, underlines the association, is currently the solar tracking plant of Ferrera Erbognone (Pavia), at Eni's Green Data Center 2.968 modules for 1 MW of total power.
“Today Eni appears entirely projected towards a future of expansion of oil and gas extraction, with many announcements and few concrete investment actions in clean sources - declares Stefano Ciafani, national president of Legambiente - We think that this path is wrong and we ask the Italian Government to be consistent with the commitments signed at an international level, directing Eni's choices".
For this reason, Legambiente continues, "we are also launching an appeal to the Minister of Economic Development Luigi Di Maio so that, after the important push given for an ambitious European package on energy and climate, oil and gas extraction projects are blocked and all the subsidies still guaranteed today to fossil fuels. We also ask that the essential interventions be accelerated to get to the scrapping of polluting energy sources, starting with oil, with concrete measures in the next budget law, to mark a real break with previous governments".
