Italy
The Government is drafting legislation that will introduce serious cuts in the existing framework of incentives for renewables. According to environmental groups and the renewables industry, this move would jeopardise efforts to reach the national 2020 clean energy targets.
Last year, the Italian Government reduced spending on solar power incentives to help consumers who support the scheme through power bills.Now the government has drafted a decree on incentive cuts for power generation from wind, water and biomass, which is expected to be finalised by the end of February.
The latest draft of the decree sets in force a reduction of the maximum annual spending on support of renewable power generation to €5.0-5.5 billion from €6.0-7.0 billion under an earlier draft, according to renewable energy associations APER, ANIE and ANEV. These figures do not include incentives for solar power generation, which are covered by another decree passed in 2011.
According to WWF Italy, the climatic and economic crises should lead Italy to adopt a strategy that promotes clean energy and resource efficiency and ensures compatibility with EU and international policies on climate change and decarbonisation.