Italy Plans 60 Percent Reduction In Emissions By 2030

Italian Ecology Minister Roberto Cingolani said the country plans to reduce its emissions by around 60% by 2030. The EU's current 2030 target is a 55% reduction.

Italian Ecology Minister Roberto Cingolani said Italy plans to reduce its emissions by around 60% by 2030, after using 80 billion euros of EU funding for the energy transition in the next five years.

In a telephone conversation with US climate envoy John Kerry on Wednesday, Cingolani described the emission reduction plan as “a big leap forward”.

While the EU recently set an emission reduction target of 55% by 2030, Italy set a reduction target of 33% by the same year in the latest national energy plan released in December 2019.

Climate policies are at the center of the agenda in Brussels, which wants to achieve “net zero” emissions by 2050.

In December, EU leaders agreed to significantly increase the current target of 40%, reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% from 1990 levels by 2030.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi has put climate change at the center of his plans by creating a new energy transition ministry responsible for the country’s green agenda.

“We plan to install 40 gigawatts of renewable energy in the country to accelerate decarbonisation by 2050,” Cingolani told Kerry.

The minister said the focus is on reducing bureaucracy for faster authorization of energy projects.

Several companies, including electric giant Enel and grid operator Terna, complained that an overly complex permitting process was hampering progress.

“If you can change any bureaucracy, you will be my hero,” Kerry told Cingolani.