“To help the planet and to get out of this difficult phase, we need more courage on the climate”. This is what Pierluigi Stefanini, President of ASviS affirms. The Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development presented the Notebook “The right ecological transition” at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome during the central event of the Sustainable Development Festival 2022.
What does just transition mean?
From our point of view it means being aware that climate change requires fundamental choices. On top of all there is the need to reduce emissions down to zero by 2050. To achieve this goal there is a need for multiple interventions such as incentives for renewable energy. It is also necessary to provide for savings in energy consumption, and to eliminate subsidies harmful to the climate by increasing incentives on green energy. We must also act on consumption patterns and accelerate, for example, the circular economy and recycling. It is necessary to use all available roads without, however, moving to the detriment of the social conditions of the workers and the most vulnerable people.
What kind of interventions are you soliciting in this difficult moment?
Interventions are needed that are carried out immediately and that have a long-term breath. For example, by encouraging the energy communities in the area, citizens will be given the opportunity to save a lot of money for many years. In this sense, rules are needed that encourage green energy production choices in the area and in local communities. In the medium to long term, households and businesses will be able to save on their bills and self-generate energy. The EU estimates that in 2050 at least half of the energy production, which must be zero-emission as foreseen by the Paris agreements and the Green deal, will come from communities and the territory. This mechanism must be encouraged and will bring about a very important change.
The route is marked. What’s still missing?
What is missing is the courage, the political will, the ability to make the ecological transition socially attractive and culturally dominant and to take the path of sustainable development with determination. The ASviS Notebook on the Just Ecological Transition embraces the challenges of the 17 Goals of the 2030 Agenda approved in 2015 by the 193 UN states with a holistic vision. The document explores the value of the interdependencies between the environmental, social, economic and institutional dimensions of sustainable development, in the context of the evolution towards a system capable of aligning the good of people and communities with the good of humanity as a whole, over time.
What is your forecast for the future of gas? Will the price return to pre-war levels?
Difficult to say. It is certain that a lot will depend on the strategies that will be shared at European level and related to the Green deal. Much will come from the development that renewable energies will have on the continent. The more the mix increases in favor of renewables, the more the price of gas will fall.