At HGE10, energy security goes through decarbonization. Italy ‘leads’ on reducing dependence on Moscow

Brussels – Energy security and decarbonization climate policy: Two sides of the same coin: if you don’t accelerate one, you slow down the other. This is a clear warning from Matthew Baldwin, deputy director general of DG ENER of the European Commission, in his speech at the tenth edition of the event ‘How can we govern Europe?’, organized by Withub with the editorial direction of Eunews and GEA, held today (Dec. 6) in Brussels at the residence of the Italian ambassador to Belgium.

The last panel of the day-long discussion between institutions, politics, and industry was devoted to “Energy security: reduced dependence on Russia, can the EU aim for autonomy with renewable sources?” From the question in the panel title came the cue to reflect on the last two years of energy crisis that have tested the European Union between gas supply cuts by Russia and the need to make itself autonomous (or nearly so) from the point of view of supplies and procurement of critical raw materials.

“We are at a better point than we were a year ago, but the crisis may still hit us,” Baldwin sentenced, crunching out numbers that show that the EU and Italy have overcome or at least are overcoming the crisis. As the EU, “we quickly decided” to reduce, and eventually abandon, “dependence on Russian fossil fuels” through the ‘REPowerEu’ plan launched in May 2022. “We went from about 155 billion cubic meters of gas in 2021 to 40 billion cubic meters now” of supplies from Moscow.

Not only. The European strategy focuses on saving consumption (and Italy, Baldwin says, has managed to exceed the 18 percent consumption cut target) and pushing renewables. “In 2023, the EU expects to install 70 GigaWatts of renewable capacity, solar and wind. Italy is expected to double its installed capacity from the previous year,” he said.

During the energy crisis, Eni also moved as a company and represented Italy as a country within the framework of the EU decision to reduce and eliminate dependence on Russian fossil fuels. Italy was a champion in this, reaching the objective in the shortest possible time compared to other countries. This was possible thanks to an already existing diversification of routes,” said Luca Giansanti, head of Eni’s European Government Affairs, pointing out that Italy “is lucky to have gas pipelines and to have decided to increase regasification capacity.”

According to Stefano Verrecchia, Italy’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU, during the crisis, Italy has been able “to respond to the emergency but, as a country, we have always tried to have a realistic attitude in the transition, taking into account the social dimension as well,” he added, stressing the need for “a major financial solution” to deal with the transition.

In the context of rapidly reducing emissions, the risk, according to the 5 Star Movement MEP Tiziana Beghin, is to “replace” the EU’s dependence on Russian supplies “with other partners who are not always stable.” “We are in a historical period when critical conditions have occurred together. With the energy independence plan ‘RepowerEu and the price cap for gas, we managed to keep the price of energy low, but it is still double the pre-crisis levels, creating  many distortions.”

The debate does not center only on renewables but also other zero-emission energy sources, such as nuclear, that divide the EU. Since the Green Deal, the EU “has declined a decarbonization strategy, and in this framework, nuclear is a choice of individual member states and not of the EU. From Brussels, there is a commitment, especially in the field of research,” said Democratic Party MEP Patrizia Toia. In recent times, “a new interest has arisen in the EU in next-generation nuclear power, in so-called small nuclear reactors,” she said, recalling that an initiative report on small modular reactors will be voted on in the European Parliament in Strasbourg next week. The Itre committed voted on this in recent weeks, and Toia recalled that the Italian delegation in the S&D group “did not vote in favor.”