Pichetto Fratin: 'Italy is ready to say goodbye to coal'

'Italy is ready to say goodbye to coal, the fossil source that generates the most greenhouse gas emissions'. This was said by Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, in Turin to chair the G7 meeting on climate in Venaria, which runs until Tuesday. 'We have assessed the timing: we could get there in the next few months, although with the current geopolitical scenario it is more likely to talk about a year for mainland Italy and 2027 for Sardinia,' Pichetto Fratin said.

For the minister, the commitment to renewables is not enough: 'We want to grow photovoltaics, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric power: the goal is to arrive at the end of this decade with a third of our needs covered by renewables, adding 70 Terawatts of production. Today, Italy consumes almost 310 Terawatts of energy, but the demand could double by 2050. But renewables are not enough. And we cannot ruin this beautiful country with shovels and panels everywhere'.

Hence the need, according to the government, for nuclear power: 'Nuclear power is now considered a clean energy, this is also demonstrated by the European taxonomy that classifies activities that can be defined as sustainable. My ministry has a mandate from the government and parliament to go deeper into research and experimentation'.

On the G7's priorities, Pichetto added: "We are the country that is at the centre of the Mediterranean and for this very reason suffers more than anyone else from climate change, the risk of biodiversity loss, which is a strong characteristic of our country, and of course the issue of pollution, let's use the most common term but which makes the most sense. So the priorities are the changes to be made on decarbonisation: a term that means the reduction of carbon emission in a strong way, starting from the first pollutant, coal, then moving to oil and finally to clean energy production, using gas as a transition to 2050. Fourth-generation nuclear power is the research and experimentation direction we got from Parliament,' Pichetto Fratin added, 'so I am pursuing it. On the other hand, with respect to the various scenario hypotheses, I will take into account and report within the scope of what I am responsible for, what are the findings of the platform for sustainable nuclear power'. On the subject of energy security, the minister is not unbalanced: 'There will be discussion during the Ministerial Meetings both in the plenary part, in the Environment and Energy part, which are the two sectors, and in the many bilateral meetings that will be held over the next few days, starting from today'.