Parliament has approved the 2020 financial package, worth 32 billion euros. Many of its clauses concern the environment and climate: the plastic tax arrives, along with a set of measures for the Green New Deal and incentives for regeneration. However, it will no longer be possible to claim the ecobonus discount on invoices.
A 32-billion-euro package, of which 23 billion, however, was used to prevent a VAT increase for 2020. Then there is 3 billion for the reduction of the tax wedge, which will bring savings of 500 euros a year to lower incomes, the abolition from September of the superticket for healthcare services, an increase in taxes on gambling, and a tax on sugary drinks from October. These are some of the main measures in the budget law approved on the night before Christmas Eve. Among them, many points also include provisions for the environment.
The most "famous" measure is undoubtedly the plastic tax: it is a tax on the consumption of single-use plastic goods — that is, non-recyclable ones — accompanied by incentives for companies that produce biodegradable and compostable plastic goods. It will come into force on 1 July 2020 and will cost 45 cents per kilogram of plastic, including Tetra Pak. It was one of the measures most contested by the opposition, and also by part of the majority, out of fear of a rise in the final price to the detriment of consumers.
The other major innovation consists of a series of measures that, taken together, represent — in the government's intentions — a plan of public investment for the development of an Italian Green New Deal, establishing a fund of 470 million euros for 2020, 930 million euros for 2021, and 1,420 million euros for each of the years 2022 and 2023. Part of this endowment will be allocated to measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The fund also has the objectives of supporting youth and female entrepreneurship, reducing the use of plastic and replacing plastic with alternative materials. The interventions will have to address specific themes:
The package, however, does not convince everyone: for Legambiente, "it is yet another missed opportunity, as demonstrated by the failure to cancel subsidies to fossil fuels. Governments come and go, but subsidies to polluting sources remain."
The state, through the Ministry of the Economy, will be able to finance expenditure for the Green New Deal and all expenditure aimed at combating climate change, energy reconversion, the circular economy, environmental protection, and social and territorial cohesion — through the issuance of special government bonds known as green bonds. The package also guarantees Italian participation, from 2020 to 2028, in the replenishment of the Green Climate Fund. Finally, the Green New Deal establishes, within the Ministry of the Environment and the Protection of Land and Sea, a commission to study proposals aimed at the ecological transition and the reduction of environmentally harmful subsidies, with an endowment of 0.5 million euros for 2020.
One clause of the package allocates to municipalities, for each of the years from 2020 to 2024, within an overall limit of 500 million per year, contributions for investments destined for public works in the areas of:
Furthermore, one clause increases contributions for the construction of public works for the securing of buildings and the territory from 4.9 to 8.8 billion compared to 2019, including energy efficiency among the eligible works, and modifying the terms for the awarding of contracts and the methods for allocating contributions. Regeneration will not be limited to energy: from 2021 to 2034, 8.5 billion euros in contributions to municipalities for investment in urban regeneration projects are planned, aimed at reducing marginalisation and social degradation, as well as improving the quality of urban decorum and the social and environmental fabric. A further 400 million per year is earmarked for the sectors of public housing, road networks, hydrogeological instability, seismic risk prevention, and cultural and environmental heritage.
Another clause increases by 2.4 billion euros the resources directed to ordinary-statute regions for the construction of public works for the securing of buildings and the territory, as well as for measures relating to road networks, urban regeneration, energy reconversion and social infrastructure.
A Fund for the development of urban cycling networks is also established, with a financial endowment of 50 million for each of the years 2022, 2023 and 2024, to finance 50 per cent of the costs of building new urban cycle paths by municipalities and unions of municipalities that have approved planning instruments providing for the strategic development of the urban cycling network.
One provision stipulates that, to finance investment expenditure aimed at safeguarding and protecting the Alpine environment from hydrogeological risks, the region of Valle d'Aosta shall be allocated an extraordinary contribution of 5 million euros for each of the years 2020, 2021 and 2022. Furthermore, in 2020, expenditure of 60 million euros is authorised for the continuation of measures to safeguard Venice, also in light of the recent acqua alta events.
One clause of the package, in order to incentivise the use of electricity produced from renewable sources and provide support for the most disadvantaged social groups, allows public bodies in the regions responsible for subsidised, assisted and grant-funded public residential housing to benefit, under certain conditions, from the net metering mechanism for electricity produced by the plants they own — such as solar panels — with no power limit, to cover the consumption of the bodies' own users and the users of public residential housing tenants, subject to the payment, up to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total amount, of the general charges of the electricity system.
One negative development concerns the so-called ecobonus: the recovery of 65 per cent over ten years of expenditure on renovation works is confirmed, but the invoice discount mechanism — through the transfer of the ten-year bonus to the vendor — is retained only for the common parts of condominium buildings where the value of the works is equal to or greater than 200,000 euros.
The deduction is extended for expenses incurred from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020 for the purchase and installation of micro-cogeneration units replacing existing systems, and the 50 per cent deduction for expenses incurred for the purchase and installation of winter air-conditioning systems equipped with heat generators powered by combustible biomass.
One provision of the financial package finally puts electric scooters with a maximum power of 500 W on a par with bicycles: the maximum speed of electric scooters is set at six or thirty kilometres per hour depending on the zones in which they are used.
As regards motor vehicles belonging to public administrations, fleet renewals must be carried out using electric, hybrid or hydrogen-powered vehicles for at least half of the total.
Further clauses authorise expenditure of 20 million euros for 2021 for the purposes of improving the intermodal chain and decongesting the road network. Expenditure of 14 million euros for 2020 and 25 million euros for 2021 is also authorised for the full development of intermodal transport systems.
With the aim of ensuring Italy's full commitment to combating climate change and promoting sustainable development, the financial package establishes the Centro di studio e di ricerca internazionale sui cambiamenti climatici, for whose launch and operation expenditure of 500,000 euros is authorised starting from 2020.
The centre, based in Venice, is established to carry out the following tasks:
