Italy has taken a major step to achieving its net-zero climate goals by eliminating coal-fired power plants by 2025 — with the exception of Sardinia.The country’s energy minister told parliament on Wednesday that it would build natural gas plants instead. Everywhere, that is, except Sardinia which has been slower to catch on with the nervy transition. ."The intermediate target of abandoning coal in the electricity generation mix as of December 31, 2025 ... is very close. The updated (National Climate and Energy) Plan will certainly confirm it," Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said, as per Reuters.It’s all part of the European Union’s efforts to phase out fossil fuels and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 under the Paris Accord.On Sardinia, however, the use of coal to generate power won’t end until 2028, at the earliest..Over the past two years, Italy has given approval to four new gas-fired plants capable of 3,400 megawatts (MW) and upgraded existing ones to 700 MW by 2026.The European Parliament had earmarked a carbon emissions reduction target of 43.7% by 2030 for Italy, but the right-wing government of Giorgia Meloni back tracked, saying the country needed more time to reach that goal.Meanwhile, Fratin said Italy has nearly ended its dependence on Russian natural gas imports, which has been the policy goal of the Italian government since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.Italy imported only 4% of its total gas from Russia in 2023, while flows from Algeria grew to 36% from 28%. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports have also increased, mainly from Qatar and the US.After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the country doubled the amount of power generated from coal and implemented emergency measures to conserve power not seen since the Second World War. .Government data shows six coal-fired power plants, with 14 total units with about 6,000 MW of generation capacity, are still operating in Italy. That number includes two power plants, with four units with 1,130 MW of total generation, in Sardinia.The Italian government said it would have to reduce power production by 37% by 2030 to comply with the EU target, something its newly elected prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said it is unwilling to do.“It cannot be assumed that we can dismantle our economy and our companies to start the ecological transition… ecological transition and environmental sustainability must go hand in hand with social and economic sustainability,” she said.Sources said gas-fired power plants offer several advantages in the context of Italy's energy transition owing to their flexibility, enabling quick ramp-up and ramp-down of power production to accommodate fluctuations in demand while producing fewer emissions compared to coal.
