On Tuesday the 27 February 2024, under the initiative of Mr. Sergio Costa, Vice-President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, in collaboration with ECCO, a debate took place at the Italian Parliament. Stakeholders from the political world, industry, trade unions and civil society were involved in discussing the implications of Italy’s most important plan for leading the Italian economy and society towards climate neutrality: the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).
Read the event report
The event took place a year after a first meeting on the same topic. This year the debate was aimed at understanding the willingness of all actors involved to abandon their “ifs” based on doubts and uncertainties over transition, and embrace and engage on the “how”. Having agreed that moving away from fossil fuels is inevitable, it is now necessary to focus on how to foster change, first and foremost identifying who is responsible for turning ideas into tangible actions and solutions and who is able to do so.
“Between words and actions stands politics”, said Mr. Leonardi, after the video message from the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Pichetto Fratin. The Minister stressed a willingness to overturn the ratio between fossil fuels and renewable energy and move towards a decarbonised future.
Despite the event having highlighted the significant progress made in raising collective awareness of the climate crisis and the inevitability of the transition process, politics needs to do more to keep up with the demands of companies and the world of employment, and to embrace the conclusions of the event and transform them into action. It was made clear that including measures in the NECP that direct funding towards technologies and solutions particularly tied to the use of fossil fuels, adopted in moments of emergency, risks leaving the country vulnerable to future crises and to the most violent consequences of climate change.
The event was fundamental in progressing from “if” to “how” to approach the transition process, and the months leading up to the submission of the NECP will demonstrate the willingness of politics to, as the Minister Pichetto Fratin said, “protect the environment, biodiversity and our enterprises”, aware that “we must not, and cannot, leave anyone behind”.
Read the event report
Read our analyses about the NECP
