Energy crisis: Italy’s outgoing PM pledges more help with soaring prices

by time news

Ahead of the general elections on September 25th, the climate crisis and environmental issues are increasingly high priorities for voters in Italy as elsewhere – particularly following a summer of destructive extreme weather events all across Europe.

The environment was cited as the second-biggest concern among voters aged 18-25 in one recent poll by SWG, just four percentage points behind the issue of ‘prospects for young people’.

And according to the latest poll by CISE-ICCP, 82 percent of voters overall regard the battle against climate change as a political priority.

Italy’s political class, which has never stood out for its attentiveness to climate issues, seems to have finally caught up with the times, with all major Italian parties including environment-related pledges in their election manifestos, mainly focused on means of energy production.

READ ALSO: Climate crisis: Italy records ‘five times’ more extreme weather events in ten years

Expectedly though, not all factions give the same amount of importance to the subject and parties’ proposals on environmental issues vary greatly.

To give you an idea of who’s saying what, here’s an overview of Italy’s four main parties’ election pledges.

Italy shut all of its nuclear power plants after the Chernobyl accident, but a return to nuclear energy would be in the cards should the far-right bloc win the next elections. Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP

Right-wing coalition

Firstly, the alliance everyone’s talking about and the likely winners of the elections: Brothers of Italy, the League and Forza Italia have made reintroducing nuclear energy a cornerstone of the environmental and energy policy mentioned near the end of their joint manifesto.

Despite the fact that the Italian public has never taken kindly to nuclear power – having previously rejected it in 1987 and 2011 – the right, and in particular the League, appears to want to give it another shot.

The programme proposes Italy should begin producing “clean and safe nuclear energy”, without giving any explanation as to what this might look like.

The League’s own manifesto mentions plans to build “a national nuclear energy industry” centred around “last-generation nuclear reactors”.

“Italy is the only one of the big countries in the world that says no to nuclear power out of ideology, not science,” League leader Matteo Salvini said during election campaigning on August 9th.

Italy’s four former nuclear power plants, active before the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, have long been decommissioned and election pledges don’t mention the costs associated with the construction and maintenance of new plants.

Though both Brothers of Italy and the League have historically opposed Europe-wide plans to reduce gas emissionsthe coalition now says it is committed to ensuring that the country “makes good on the international agreements to oppose climate change” – a change of heart which might not seem genuine to many.

The manifesto also suggests further investment in renewable energy and the domestic exploration and production of natural gas, as well as investment in hydrogen and waste-to-energy plants.

Democratic Party (PD)

On the other side of the political spectrum, Enrico Letta’s Democratic Party (PD) believes that environment-related efforts should be “ambitious” but economically and socially viable.

Barcelona's Enagas regasification plant.

Italy’s Democratic Party regards regasification plants as a ‘temporary solution’, which should be abandoned by 2050. Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP

As such, the PD rejects nuclear energy as a viable alternative given that the “timeframe and existing technologies are not compatible with a significant reduction in emissions by 2030”.

The party instead plans on significantly increasing the amount of renewable energy produced in the country – an additional 85 gigawatts by 2030 – through the introduction of incentives for businesses scoring highly in environmental ratings and the development of local energy communities.

READ ALSO: ‘By a substantial margin’: How summer 2022 was Europe’s hottest on record

The party also pledges to follow the EU’s FitFor55 project’s guidelines, which seek to decrease gas emissions by at least 55 percent across member states by 2030.

In the same vein, PD’s programme regards regasification plants (plants converting liquefied natural gas to methane gas) only as a “temporary solution”, which should be abandoned “long before 2050, so as to avoid interfering with the ecological transition” (i.e. the planned gradual abandonment of fossil energy sources in favour of renewable ones).

PD also plans on implementing a nationwide water-saving scheme that it says would prevent waste and mitigate the consequences of future droughts.

Five-Star Movement (M5S)

The Five-Star Movement, led by former premier Giuseppe Conte, has made environmental issues a priority since its foundation back in 2009 – the superbonus for construction works increasing a property’s energy efficiency was introduced by the second Conte government in 2020.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the party’s programme dedicates 30 of its 245 pages (just over 12 percent) to environmental policies.

The Amager Bakke waste incinerator in Copenhagen.

The anti-establishment Five-Star Movement strongly opposes waste incinerators, pushing for ‘greener’ waste disposal models. Photo by Ida Guldbaek ARENSTEN / Ritzau SCANPIX / AFP

Their energy plan includes a substantial reduction in the national energy demand, an increase in renewable energy (especially ‘green’ hydrogen) and the “decarbonisation of existing manufacturing sectors”.

READ ALSO: ‘A code red’: Will Europeans change their habits after climate crisis ‘reality check’?

M5S openly oppose new gas drilling, waste incinerators and nuclear powerwith the last being described as “incompatible with the energy transition” due to “inherent flaws” and “vulnerability”.

Italy Live-Action (or third pole)

The so-called ‘third pole’ (third pole) unites two relatively new centrist parties: Italia Viva (Italy Alive), led by former premier Matteo Renzi, and Azione (Action), led by Carlo Calenda.

In a joint programme, the parties pledge to reduce Italy’s dependence on Russian gas imports through the construction of new regasification plants and a marked increase in the amount of renewable energy produced in the country – no details about what types of renewable sources the coalition refers to are given.

The third pole also says it is committed to following the EU’s FitFor55 guidelines, i.e. working to reduce Italy’s gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030.

Like the right, they express strong support for nuclear powerwhich they regard as essential to the achieving these emissions targets.

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