In the shadow of the war in Ukraine and soaring energy prices, the approval of the Pitesai offers an additional lens through which to read the ecological transition.
What will become of the energy transition now that the plan for the prospection, exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons (Pitesai) on national territory has set sail? And now that coal is once again being discussed as an energy source in a time of crisis, casting a shadow over the 2025 deadline for the phase out?
The conclusion of the approval process for the Piano della transizione energetica sostenibile delle aree idonee (Pitesai) — bringing "clear rules after years of waiting", as the Ministry of Ecological Transition writes in a press release — bursts onto the current energy scene (albeit long anticipated). "Strongly desired" by Minister Roberto Cingolani, it will have to "accompany the transition of the national energy system by defining priorities both from a decarbonisation perspective — in line with international agreements on environmental and biodiversity protection — and in terms of energy needs".
The three faces of sustainability — environmental, social and economic — the press release reads, were the cornerstones of the plan's drafting. Before approval and publication in the official gazette, a mapping exercise was carried out by Ispra-Istituto superiore per la protezione e la ricerca ambientale and research company Rse-Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico. This was followed by a proposal drawn up by the Mite, submitted to the strategic environmental assessment (Vas) process and, finally, brought to the internal public consultation phase.
On 29 September 2021, the plan was returned to the ministry to be the subject of a dialogue phase with the Conferenza Unificata of the Regions. At the end of the year, a positive opinion was issued, with the condition that any assessment of possible activities connected to exploration permits be limited exclusively to gas and only if submitted from 1 January 2010 onwards (thus, retroactively).
The Pitesai allows operators in 15 regions – from Friuli to Puglia, excluding areas where there is no gas, namely Liguria, Tuscany (existing concessions notwithstanding), Umbria, Valle D'Aosta, Tuscany, Trentino Alto Adige, Liguria and Sardinia – to commence new offshore and onshore drilling. It reduces the extent of the extraction area – to 42.5 per cent of the mainland and 5 per cent of the marine surface – without placing time limits on existing concessions. It then requires compliance with environmental, social and economic criteria "defined on the basis of the territorial and environmental characteristics of the study areas" and linked to "regulatory constraints, various protection and conservation regimes, and particular sensitivities/vulnerabilities to activities", although these will be "where applicable, dynamic and adaptive" and constantly updated.
As stated in the document, the Pitesai provides for:
It will immediately stimulate the "rationalisation, in terms of greater efficiency of the areas employed", for the production of domestic hydrocarbons "concentrated only on a small percentage of active concessions". Furthermore, the "rationalisation of concessions present in Italy is not at odds with the need to safeguard domestic production and employment levels".
There is also the promise of indicating "timescales and methods for decommissioning and site restoration by the relevant installations that have ceased their activities", for which it is planned to "introduce specific measures, legislative and regulatory, aimed at accelerating the decommissioning process of offshore platforms at the end of their useful life, and in general of all onshore and offshore extraction installations in such a situation".
With the fixed objective of "introducing a new boost to the local economy through the opening, in the medium term, of new worksites, with the creation of new jobs, both for the decommissioning of end-of-life extraction structures and for the potential repurposing of those same structures in a non-extractive capacity". This goal, which not only aspires to write the book on the energy transition, opens another chapter: that of the intelligent management of decommissioning and worksites, which will need to be promoted in order to recover raw materials and reduce, here too, imports from abroad. Otherwise, the circular economy also risks remaining an unfulfilled aspiration.
A "stopgap, reckless and senseless" solution, as it was described in a joint press release by environmental associations Wwf, Greenpeace and Legambiente.
What are the, so to speak, sensible choices? The associations propose not doubling domestic gas production, from 3.5 billion cubic metres per year to 7 billion, but rather "increasing tenfold the speed of development of renewable sources, starting with solar photovoltaic and wind power", launching "serious energy efficiency policies in domestic consumption and production cycles" and, furthermore, simplifying the authorisation process for new plants.
The war in Ukraine appears to be undermining the path that the national energy sector has embarked upon to achieve the European objective of climate neutrality by 2050. The conflict has brought the issue of energy geopolitics and Italy's dependence back to the fore: Russia is the world's leading exporter of petroleum products and crude oil; in 2021, the European Union alone imported 4.3 million barrels per day and a total of 155 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Moscow (Source: Eurostat).
Thought is being given to how to remedy the situation. Prime Minister Mario Draghi, in a recent meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said that Italy and the EU "must work on diversification and reorganisation, with an acceleration of investments in renewable energy. The objective, shared by the whole EU, is to double gas storage by autumn." A few hours later, the European Commission presented the REPowerEU action plan to break free from Russian gas and oil. A similar decision was taken by the United States and the United Kingdom.
The sustainable transformation of the sector cannot happen overnight: it is a process that requires balancing economic burdens with environmental benefits, promoting cohesive governance, safeguarding the interests of supply chains, aiming for the conservation and conscious reuse of resources, making citizens the protagonists of their own future, and investing far-sightedly in the cross-cutting nature of skills to ensure the flourishing of new professional figures and the occupational migration from more traditional sectors.
In an interview on 8 March on Agorà extra on Rai3, Minister for Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani explained that "by late spring, around 15–16 billion cubic metres will be replaced by other suppliers" and that "we are working with new plants, regasification and long-term contracts, reinforcement of our infrastructure, and reasonably within 24–30 months these should allow us to be completely independent."
There has always been a strong awareness of supply security, as was clearly demonstrated in 2017 when the National Energy Strategy was adopted, which gave rise to the current National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec), the roadmap for Italy's transition to 2030.
The intention to continue gas extraction activities, all the more symbolic in the wake of the presentation of the REPowerEU action plan, would appear to clash with the objectives set out in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan for the country's sustainable recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
In that document, the transition is described as "a unique opportunity for Italy" because it stands to benefit more than other countries "given the relative scarcity of traditional resources (e.g. oil and natural gas)" and the abundance of renewable resources. And yet, the Pitesai states, activities linked to fossil fuels — which will not receive resources from the Pnrr — will continue. Also because, and this is a very interesting interpretive key, the Recovery and Resilience Plan highlights how the refinery sector "represents one of the most promising sectors" for "developing the market" and beginning to "use green hydrogen", considered one of the pillars of Europe's sustainable transition.
