PALERMO (ITALPRESS) – Presented in Sicily data from Checkmate for Renewables, Legambiente’s national report on the obstacles that put at risk the achievement of climate goals, but also the development and innovation of territories. Also presented the Observatory Eligible Areas and Regions.
In the ranking of the regions lagging the furthest behind the target indicated by the National Eligible Areas Decree, Sicily ranks eighth: according to the pace of installations held over the past 4 years, it is in danger of reaching the 2030 target with 13.6 years delay.
Italy from Legambiente’s report comes up short with respect to achieving the 2030 target on renewables development set by the Eligible Areas Decree. Despite the partial and positive results of recent years – with 17,717 MW of renewables installed from 2021 to 2024 with an annual average of 4,429 MW per year – Italy risks not meeting the target of 80,001 MW of new power to be installed by 2030 and reaching this goal in 2038, taking 8 years longer.”
“As of today, the Peninsula with 17,717 MW has, in fact, achieved just 22 percent of the 2030 target, missing 62,284 MW to be realized in the next six years, equal to 10,380.6 MW per year, but the road ahead is all uphill, both at the national level and at the regional and municipal level, also due to wrong decrees and laws, delays, bureaucratic obstacles and local opposition.” Regarding the installations made compared to the target indicated by the National Decree Eligible Areas, “Sicily ranks 8th in the regional ranking for having reached 17% of the target with 1,778 MW made between 2021 and 2024 out of an additional power target to 2030 of 10,485 MW: according to the pace of installations held in the last 4 years, we risk reaching the 2030 target with more than 13 years delay. To catch up, Sicily in the next 6 years will have to make a significant acceleration by intensifying installations so as to realize an additional 8,707 MW, or an average of 1,451.2 MW per year.”
“We can no longer afford further delays in the ecological reconversion of our energy model, which is still dependent on fossil fuels and polluting sources,” says Tommaso Castronovo, president of Legambiente Sicilia. “Bureaucratic delays in authorization processes, inconsistent national legislation and calls for moratoriums on wind and solar power plants, based on unfounded fears of landscape devastation and agricultural land subtraction, are holding back the development of a strategic sector for the future of our region.
Legambiente Sicilia stresses the urgency of accelerating the development of renewable energies through careful planning for the quality of the urban, agricultural and industrial landscape, actively involving local communities. “Renewable energy sources,” Castronovo continues, “not only represent a bulwark against the devastating effects of climate change, which are already causing extensive damage to people, property and territories, but also offer concrete opportunities for energy savings for families and the creation of new and good jobs in the sector of clean and innovative technologies. Renewable energy,” concludes the president of Legambiente Sicilia, “is the key to a sustainable future, to the protection of biodiversity and to a more equitable and efficient economic system. It is time to overcome anachronistic obstacles and adopt courageous choices for the good of our region and future generations.”
The Eligible Areas and Regions Observatory was also presented: “Our Observatory Eligible Areas and Regions,” comments Katiuscia Eroe, Legambiente’s energy manager, “wants to provide a detailed analysis of what is happening between regional regulatory processes and delays, supervising and stimulating administrations to be more courageous, especially considering that renewables and efficiency are the only concrete answers to the country’s problems and that the 2030 target is only a first step toward the decarbonization goals to be reached by 2035 for electricity production and by 2050 for the rest of the energy system. Italy’s delay with respect to the 80,001 MW to be reached within six years,” he continued, “is worrying, as is the wall that several regions are putting up on the issue of suitable areas, as in the case first and foremost of Sardinia and Tuscany, which will make 99 percent and 70 percent of the regional territory, respectively, unsuitable for the construction of renewable energy plants.
For the proposed regional legislation on eligible areas, Sicily is “unclassifiable, since the only document to date that has been made public is that of a proposal by some regional deputies, of which the positive and negative elements are nevertheless analyzed.”
“We hope that Sicily will depart sharply from the trend of other regions, first and foremost Sardinia, of making almost the entire regional territory unsuitable, also in light of how the Constitutional Court ruled a few days ago on the moratorium that had preceded the Sardinian law,” declares Anita Astuto energy and climate manager of Legambiente Sicilia. Rather, we believe that Sicilian policy must have the courage to lead the way for a counter-trend that will allow Italy, starting with Sicily, which has the most onerous regional power target, to reach its decarbonization goals.”
Ten of Legambiente’s proposals for Italy, three proposals for Sicily: “Translating the authorizations already issued in Sicily into realized plants; Looking to the future, that is, to decarbonization goals; Quickly approving the law on regional suitable areas in order to better plan and accelerate the realization of plants, not to slow it down or block it.”
Among the 10 proposals: “envisage tools to improve the social acceptability of installations by intervening with rules that provide for the active and constructive participation of territories, so as not to give way to prejudicial positions that block even quality projects. And all this will have to be accompanied by a cultural revolution that considers this transition an opportunity for investment and employment development for the territories, as well as the only way to save the landscape from a permanent transformation brought about by the climate crisis.”
-Photo Ipa/Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
