The Recovery Plan takes a wrong turn on Eni and Ravenna
The lack of funding for the Eni-designed CO2 capture and storage plant in Ravenna in the Recovery Plan licensed by Palazzo Chigi is a mistake. The speech by Paolo Pirani, general secretary of Uiltec
The approval of the Recovery Plan by the Council of Ministers and the analysis of the related contents were obscured by the reports on the confidence votes concerning the executive in the two branches of Parliament.
Never before is the case to go back to what the Next Generation Eu can represent on the future of the energy transition in Italy, especially with respect to the support of projects advanced by the national private industry. The overall judgment that we have given on the plan in question is that it lacks “governance” with respect to the many items that it enunciates without specifying the precise actions to determine them. It is not a trivial matter.
The litmus test of this approach was represented, for example, by the lack, in the Recovery Plan licensed by Palazzo Chigi, of the financing for the CO2 capture and storage plant in Ravenna designed by Eni . It is a striking example of how that national plan refuses to support Italian excellence and aspires to be the largest European hub in the specific sector. We have said and written this several times: on the one hand it is written that it is necessary to support the circular economy based on the green one and on the other hand we give up on doing it, as the case in question demonstrates.
With these obvious illogicalities, the country not only loses face, but also employment and energy production, with the increasingly evident risk of being energetically dependent on third countries. Other than resilience and economic revival. Here you are committed to hurting yourself alone. Given the situation, we understand that Eni's management is working on several levels to not lose the right funding for the project that promised good things through a billion and a half euros to invest. As far as we are concerned, Parliament will have to take action to recover the government oversight.
Ravenna deserves to become the largest European center for CO2 capture and storage. Furthermore, we must return to investing in the extraction of natural gas which is rich in the Adriatic Sea. There are no other ways: the decarbonization of the industrial system must be able to pass through the combined cycle of gas, on the capture and storage of carbon dioxide; medium and long term on the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier.
It is clear that the best strategy to be the protagonist of the European Green Deal is to follow its contents and projects such as "Carbon capture storage" to which the EU assigns a fundamental role in the path towards climate neutrality until 2050. It is good that we support without ifs and buts the project for the collection, storage and use of CO2 in Ravenna. This is an action that would place an Italian chain of companies specializing in decarbonisation services at the top of the global value chain. We cannot afford to miss this opportunity.
In the energy sector, the country has opportunities such as that of Ravenna that arise from specific potential. In this context, in terms of environmental sustainability, the competitiveness of the related industry must be developed. In short, we must recover that already mentioned "governance" of the sector and at the same time we must take responsibility for deciding. We need a large information campaign disseminated by the stakeholders, within a framework of a national pact in the interest of the new generations who need a better environment but also economic development and work. But, above all, certain investments and resources are required. The recovery of the national economy is based on this type of choice, with a multiplier effect that can extend from the energy sector to others in the Italian industry. The problem is being able to make the right choices and, above all, being able to spend all the resources destined to support them well.
The case of Ravenna does not prove well, but "In itinere" improvements are possible. This is exactly what the union is asking in this regard.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/il-recovery-plan-eni-e-ravenna-ecco-perche/ on Thu, 21 Jan 2021 09:45:54 +0000.