In Italy, climate and renewables policies are at a standstill

In Italy they don’t take off policies for the climate and for the renewableso much so that our country remains stuck in the middle of the ranking on the environmental and energy performance of nations (plus the EU as a whole).

It’s about the Climate Change Performance Index elaborated by Germanwatch, Climate Action Network and New Climate Institute, in collaboration with Legambiente for Italian data, presented at the Cop 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

As seen in the table below (click above to enlarge), we are in twenty-ninth position, slightly better than last year, when Italy was ranked thirtieth.

To compose this index, several were taken indicators in four categories, with different percentage weights on the final score assigned to each country:

greenhouse gas emissions (40%)
development of renewables (20%)
energy uses (20%)
climate policies (20%).

The Climate Index tries to measure how consistent each nation is with the commitments made to 2030 on energy and climate and with the objectives of the Paris Agreements.

To penalize the Italian result, the report highlights, are above all two aspects: the slowed growth of the renewabledue to the complexity of the permissions and of the many delays regulatoryas well as a policy that is still inadequate to deal with the climate crisis.

The current Integrated National Plan on Energy and Climate (Pniec), in fact, allows for a cut in emissions of just 37% compared to 1990, by 2030.

Even in this edition of the ranking, the first three positions remain empty, because none of the countries considered has achieved the performance necessary to limit the increase in average temperatures to 1.5-2 °C by the end of the century, compared to pre-industrial values.

At the top are the Scandinavian nations, with Denmark and Sweden in fourth and fifth place respectively. Following are Chile, Morocco and India thanks to the strengthening of climate actions, despite their difficult economic situations. At the bottom of the ranking are, however, countries exporting and using fossil fuels such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan.

There Chinahighlights a note from Legambiente, “largest responsible for global emissions, slips to 51st place, losing 13 positions compared to last year: despite the great development of renewables, Chinese emissions continue to grow due to the heavy use of coal and low efficiency energy of the production system”.

The United States, the second global emitter, are immediately behind China (52nd place), but gain three positions compared to last year; the result can be explained by the “new climate and energy policy of the Biden administration which is starting to bear fruit, thanks to the considerable financial support for climate action foreseen by theInflation Reduction Act“.

Meanwhile the estate of the Democrats at election of midterm should allow Biden to continue its climate agenda, both at home with the maxi plan greens from $369 billionand on the international scene, seeking a leading role for the USA at Cop 27 (see also Midterm elections save Biden’s climate agenda).