Dispatch from Italy | July '25

*** Get a bird's-eye view of Italy’s climate-friendly transition in the CLEW Guide – Italy moves on green transition, but fossil fuel ties remain tight***

Stories to watch in the weeks ahead

• Climate struggles: Heatwaves have severely affected Italy and are alternating with other extreme weather events. A flood in Bardonecchia, in the Piemonte region, killed two people, and a severe downburst in Milan caused another fatality. Heat is becoming a serious issue for the Italian economy: several factory workers went on strike as temperatures became unbearable. Trade unions have secured guarantees that workers can rest at times of extreme heat.
• Missing adaptation: Climate change is coming back into the public debate. Italy's president, Sergio Mattarella, urged Parliament to do more to prevent the worst consequences, during a meeting with the national association of insurance companies. One of the opposition leaders, Angelo Bonelli of the Green Party, remarked that Italy approved its national climate adaptation plan in 2023, but has yet to fund or implement it: a technical secretariat and data monitoring observatory are still missing.
• Renewables' future – ports and courts: Two major ports in southern Italy, Taranto and Augusta, will become hubs for offshore wind power development. Both port cities have struggled with industrial decline and unemployment for years. Government investment will amount to over 78 million euros. Meanwhile, the conflict between the Sardinia region and the renewable energy sector is heading to the Constitutional Court. The centre-left regional government, which came to power in 2024, de facto banned all new renewable energy installations by declaring almost the entire territory "unsuitable". A local court ruled the decision unlawful, and the case will now go to Italy's top court. Its outcome will be crucial for the energy transition, as Sardinia is not the only region that has obstructed the development of renewables.
• Digging again: For the first time in 30 years, Italy has launched a new mining exploration plan for critical minerals needed for energy transition technologies. The project spans half of Italy’s territory, from north to south, and will cost 3.5 million euros and involve 400 experts. In particular, the Italian government hopes to discover new deposits of lithium, graphite, copper, manganese, and rare earth elements, aided by innovative technologies such as muon radiography and artificial intelligence, which would scan the ground and minimise the impact of exploration. The decline of Italy’s mining industry began in the 1970s, with the last major mine closing in 1982. 

• The optimistic take: Gianluca Ruggieri has published a long-awaited book on the energy transition, Le energie del mondo (The energy of the world). Ruggieri is one of Italy’s most respected communicators on energy issues — and also one of the most optimistic voices when it comes to the country’s ability to carry out a successful transition. Reading him feels like a breath of fresh air.
• Are we losing the Green Deal? Much less optimistic is Stefano Feltri, one of Italy’s leading economic journalists. In an episode of his podcast Revolution, he argues that the dismantling of the Green Deal is already underway — even though this shift has never been communicated to voters. According to Feltri, the Meloni government shows no real attention to climate issues, and her party works in Europe to weaken all climate-related policies. The rollback, he says, is not due to a change in public opinion, but to economic interests and pressure from powerful lobbies.