🇮🇹 This week’s European carbon management spotlight: #Italy 🇮🇹

Italy currently lacks a concrete legal and policy framework regulating climate action, and its CDR policy is still in its infancy. It will be interesting to see which direction the new elected government led by Giorgia Meloni will take climate policy, but here’s what we know so far about Italy’s climate commitments. What is Italy’s current climate framework? 🌲 Italy’s National Energy and Climate Plan accounts for removals from the Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (#LULUCF) sector and states a “full decarbonisation” objective by 2050. 💥 Italy’s Long-Term Strategy (#LTS), which sets a #carbonneutrality goal by 2050, states that remaining emissions will be compensated by removals and carbon capture and storage (#CCS), of which 45 million tons of CO2 will be removed by natural carbon sinks. ❗In the LTS, an estimated 20-40 million tons of CO2 must be compensated to reach the country’s 2050 goal – as a result, negative emissions are necessary, with #biomethane being a focus of the country. 🔔 In April, #Rome was chosen by the European Commission to achieve two objectives of the European #GreenDeal: #climateneutrality by 2030 and #zeroemissions by 2050. Where does the potential for CDR lie? 💶 The National Plan for Recovery and Resilience (#PNRR) provides funding for Italy’s green transition, a share of which could potentially be directed towards CDR. €1.92 billion is dedicated to biomethane development, which could bring in bioenergy carbon capture and storage (#BECCS). 🗂 The LTS mentions CDR technologies including BECCS and direct air capture (#DAC), and it also indirectly mentions #biochar and enhanced weathering (#EW). However, there has been little initiative to scale this into national projects. 🔑 Private companies may hold the key to CDR in Italy. Climeworks has opened a DAC facility in #Troia capable of filtering 150 tons of CO2 from the air per year. While #CCS and #CDR are mentioned in Italy’s LTS, there are no concrete measures in place, and the country has not set formal CDR targets. However, this means the CDR environment can be influenced substantially with the right technology and research at hand. Climeworks’ DAC facility is only one example of how Italy can be a prosperous ground for CDR projects, and Giorgia Meloni has reiterated the country’s commitment to decarbonization in line with the #ParisAgreement. I’m eager to see how this will actually play out. What do you think Italy’s CDR future holds? Any companies or people you’d like to shout out? 🙌 Shout out to CarpeCarbon, Koalisation, 17tons.earth, Limenet, Eni, DESARC MARESANUS, CMCC Foundation - Centro Euro Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Climeworks, Carbonsink, Alberami | Regenerative Farming, Terrasink, Federico Antoniciello, Susanna Di Vincenzo, Tania Cencetti, Davide Pettenella, Francesco Musardo, Lucia Brusegan, Stefano Cappello, Silvia Stefanelli. #carbonremoval #italy