Energy crisis, Italy banks on gas and approves new drilling
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
The Meloni government has announced the granting of new permits for drilling in the Adriatic Sea in search of gas.
Energy crisis, Italy banks on gas and approves new drilling
The Meloni government has announced the granting of new permits for drilling in the Adriatic Sea in search of gas.
The solution to the energy crisis, for the Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni, runs through gas and drilling. The Council of Ministers, on Friday 4 November, gave the green light to new permits in order to extract the fossil fuel in the Adriatic Sea, including at distances of as little as 9 miles from the coast.
The gas provision in an amendment to the Aiuti ter decree
The government thus confirmed the reports of the preceding days. In technical terms, the provision will be contained in an amendment to be put before Parliament the following week, as part of the debate on the decreto Aiuti ter. The latter, in fact, also contains "urgent measures" to address the energy crisis.
The conservative executive is thus aiming to significantly increase the quantity of gas extracted directly in our country, compared to the 3.3 billion cubic metres recorded in 2021. Furthermore, the President of the Council specified that she will ask companies to guarantee that between 1 and 2 billion cubic metres are made available to particularly energy-intensive businesses at regulated prices, in order to counter the surge in prices.
Italy's choice incompatible with climate objectives
A choice that, in practice, is largely in line with what Europe has indicated — having included gas as a transitional source in its taxonomy of economic activities considered "sustainable." Yet it is, in practice, incompatible with the climate objectives set not only by Italy but by the entire international community.
Science has in fact been entirely clear on this point: all fossil fuels that have not yet been extracted, whether coal, oil or gas, must remain underground, if we are still to hope to achieve the objective of limiting the rise in average global temperature, between now and 2100, to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
"We are worsening the climate crisis with minimal impact on independence"
"By increasing offshore drilling — commented Greenpeace Italia — the government is worsening the climate crisis. Adding up proven and probable reserves, we would have little more than a year's worth of gas consumption. With minimal impact on energy independence and costs. What is needed instead is more renewables, energy efficiency and energy saving."
Aumentando le trivellazioni in mare il governo aggrava la #crisiclimatica. Sommando riserve certe e probabili, avremmo poco più di un anno di consumi di gas. Con impatti minimi su indipendenza e costo dell'energia. Servono invece più rinnovabili, efficienza e risparmio energetico
Just hours before the opening of the twenty-seventh United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Italy is thus sending a negative and dangerous signal to its international partners. That said, the position of the Meloni government is not dissimilar to that of the Minister for Ecological Transition in the outgoing executive led by Mario Draghi, Roberto Cingolani, who had come out firmly in favour of new drilling.