Scaroni (Enel): 'China dominates green supply chains, the EU will react as the US wants'

In order to accelerate decarbonisation - a process that "requires cyclopean investments", including in electricity grids - it would however also require a turnaround on the cultural front, according to Enel's chairman: "There is a lot of talk about transition, but little is actually known about it. There is a widespread conviction in living rooms that it is happening, and we are surprised when we then discover that 2023 is the year in which the world has consumed the most coal, oil and gas in the history of mankind. Solar and wind power account for just 2.4 per cent of global energy consumption, 12 per cent if we are talking about electricity (which, however, is about 20 per cent of total energy), despite having attracted investments of $4 trillion since 2004. The point is that in the meantime, along with prosperity, energy consumption has grown'.

Hitting the 2030 transition targets is however 'technically possible', in Scaroni's opinion: 'The technologies are there and continue to improve, the production capacity, for example to make solar panels or wind turbines, is not lacking, and neither are the economic returns, from which consumers also benefit. What we lack, rather, is a sense of urgency: we should address this issue as a top priority, as if we were fighting a war, otherwise we will never reach the goals we have set ourselves'.

As for the goal of climate neutrality, set for 2050, 'it is a very long scenario, we cannot exclude that there will be decisive technological innovations. Then we must not forget the nuclear, which in the current state of knowledge we cannot do without in order to reach net zero. Italy needs to think about it now if it wants to, we should equip ourselves with at least twenty plants, but where are the sites to accommodate them?".

During the debate in Trento there was also room for some consideration of the forthcoming European elections, which will take us to the polls on 9 June. The EU's environmental policies have led to protests and some malaise that could influence the vote. 'It may be that the attitude of the institutions will change,' Scaroni conceded, 'I hope not, because we must continue along the road to decarbonisation, even exploring new terrain.

The enthusiasm with which the outgoing European Commission embraced the challenge of transition, Scaroni reflects, depended 'mainly on two reasons. The first is the great weight of the green parties in some countries, including Germany: a strong voice that was able to make itself heard. The second reason, which is also very deep-rooted in Germany, is that we were convinced that if we had tackled these issues before others, we would have gained an advantage by being the first to equip ourselves with key technologies and know-how. But this has unfortunately not worked out as well as we had hoped.