The G7 shows the way: within 10 years Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States will eliminate coal. Thus, the countdown for the most harmful of fossil fuels has begun in the leading group of world economies. Of course there is an important flaw in this decision: the absence of China and India, but the signal remains clear. In the text that concludes the G7 climate, energy and environment meeting in Turin we read that the Seven undertake to “gradually eliminate the production of energy from coal existing in our energy systems during the first half of the 1930s or in a temporal sequence consistent with the keeping the limit of 1.5 degrees of temperature increase within reach, in line with net-zero pathways”.
On this journey, for once, Italy is the one carrying the lightest backpack. We have practically abandoned coal some time ago. The invasion of Ukraine and the consequent cut of significant imports of Russian gas had created a period of uncertainty which, however, was quickly resolved. In reality, the call to reopen coal plants was more a form of emotional insurance to the country than a substantial practical change.
The small power plants to be reopened had neither the production capacity nor a state of maintenance such as to be able to guarantee a significant contribution. In fact, the production of the main two coal-fired power plants (Civitavecchia and Brindisi) plus Monfalcone and La Spezia has been increased. But these plants have also been running at idle for some time now: electricity production from coal reaches just 1.7%. And the Minister of the Environment Gilberto Pichetto Fratin announced that within a year Italy will close all coal-fired power plants, with the exception of Sardinia which, being free of methane, will postpone the phase out to 2027.
In the G7 group, the only country that still has a significant share of coal-fired electricity production is Japan: Tokyo will have to make the greatest effort. Among European countries, however, Germany is the most exposed, but it has long adopted a strategy of avoiding fossils.
“The German case clearly shows that the energy problem can be solved even in a country with an industrial history centered on coal and the atom,” observes Stefano Ciafani, president of Legambiente. “Berlin has already abandoned nuclear energy and within 11 years it will also close its accounts with coal and gas. All this is possible thanks to coherent and continuous choices that have allowed us to focus on a highly innovative model based on renewables, storage systems and smart grids. If Germany, which is the leading manufacturing country in Europe, did it, can’t Italy do it?”
The move by the United States, Europe and Japan will have a broader effect on the market: the risk of an investment in coal increases everywhere as it becomes clearer that the source is at risk of suppression in the short term, while a new power plant has a potential life that it is measured in decades. Furthermore, there is growing pressure from the scientific community and the United Nations to eliminate coal as an energy source which, having the highest carbon content, is the most dangerous from a climatic as well as environmental point of view.
Of course, China has officially set the time for net zero emissions at 2060 instead of 2050. And it continues to build coal-fired power plants at full blast: more than half of the electricity produced comes from this fuel. Beijing, however, is at the same time the main producer and manager of renewable sources in the world. It uses all avenues to grow its economy, but it knows that abandoning fossils is the obligatory way out to escape the climate trap, which among other things threatens it directly due to sea pressure along the coasts and the advance of the deserts. Until now, it has always made environmental commitments in a rebellious manner but has then honored them in advance, driven by a medium-long term economic logic rather than by ecological sensitivity.
And the energy scenario configured by the IEA (International Energy Agency) is very clear. Globally, renewables will already ensure 35% of electricity production next year. To then accelerate growth. A trend that poses few numerical questions but many political questions: who will be able to catch the energy train of the twenty-first century?
