Not even the time for the EU Commissioners to open it and the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec) sent by the Ministry of the Environment is targeted by criticism and consensus. Every day there is a new one, despite the Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin had foreseen it. When he sent the document to the Commission, he specified that "in the coming months, the proposed plan will be the subject of discussions with Parliament and the Regions, as well as the Strategic Environmental Assessment procedure". The criticism of the government of Annalisa Corrado, of the secretariat of the Democratic Party – «the Plan was not shared even in Parliament» – was, therefore, already originally rejected. The Minister took his time but he will have to go to Parliament. Negative considerations about 424 pages of text aThey come in these hours from experts and environmental associations. But what does the definitive plan prepared by the center-right contain and which fills a void of many years? Space for renewables, above all. By 2030, 40% of these sources will have to cover gross final energy consumption, or 65% for electricity consumption alone. 37% of energy from renewables for heating and cooling, 31% for transport, 42% of hydrogen from renewables for industry. In this sense, there is an increase of 10,5 percentage points compared to the previous version of the 2020 Plan. The right, usually not very green, has raised its targets.
The nuclear option and CO2 capture
Two other salient chapters of the Pniec are nuclear energy and carbon dioxide capture. For both, the Plan opens the door to research and experimentation with the hypothesis of carbon dioxide storage. As far as nuclear power is concerned, it should be remembered that last month Parliament approved a resolution which recognizes the need to (re)evaluate this source. A small conceptual and political revolution, but one that still divides the country. In recent days there are also those who have noted that the Plan considers both nuclear energy and the capture of CO2 to be "indispensable". In this regard, the presentation of the Pniec becomes an opportunity to clarify and overcome - who knows - an ideological vision of environmental sustainability. All over the world, the fight against climate change is selecting authentic advocates from potential or deliberately simulated ones. The Italian hope, in the light of the disasters accumulated through ignorance or demagogic calculation on the sustainable economy, is that a debate that has become annoying.
WWF and others: more electricity from renewables.
"The Plan - says Pichetto Fratin - indicates targets, governance, monitoring and forms of financing with which Italy intends to tackle the climate crisis through energy policies". I am very close targets and complexes that do not have to sacrifice the country's economy. The definitive text will have to be made operational by June 2024, when there will be just six years left to go. The credibility of everything written and sent to Brussels depends on many factors. For now – WWF, Greenpeace, Legambiente, Kyoto Club attack – the Plan has no clear vision, he is contradictory and, while saying he wants to pursue decarbonisation, he takes many diversions to slow it down. Why do electric renewables stop at 65% by 2030, ask the associations? More can be done and Electricity future says that it is possible to reach up to 80%. A critical point concerns the role of natural gas. But we leave out the fact, strategic for Giorgia Meloni, that the government wants to build the Italian gas hub. The Alliance for Sustainable Development has relaunched its ten recommendations for the energy transition and the climate. The recommendation for a clear definition of the roles and tasks of the various institutions and the resolution of local conflicts on renewable plants and landscape protection is very interesting. The government will have to intervene to free up projects and resources. Finally, the Milanese think tank ECCO notes that the Pniec "does not offer a coherent path out of fossil fuels, but a window of about a year is now opening, to arrive in June 2024 with a final version of the Plan, the result of the dialogue between the European Commission and the Government, but also of an improvement path to further raise the level of ambition".
Italy, therefore, after many years finally has a document to work on. It took a long time to develop it. The Minister made an online consultation that left many protagonists of the green transition unsatisfied. The thing to do is push on the legislative and bureaucratic mechanisms to achieve what we have sent to Europe. The Italians will also regain confidence.