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Benjamin Sporton, WCA Policy Director

The decision by Italy’s top administrative court to reverse the government’s approval for the conversion of an old oil power plant into a new coal plant with carbon capture and storage (CCS) is both surprising and disappointing.

While full reasons for the decision haven’t yet come to light, it seems to be based on the intervention of a number of environmental groups in Italy opposed to fossil fuels, who in the meantime have dealt a blow to a project that would have played a significant role in creating a low carbon future for Italy.

The project at Enel’s Porto Tolle plant would have been a major development in the European CCS industry, being the first full scale CCS power plant to be developed in Europe. Worth €2.5 billion, the project would have created around 3000 jobs and provided significant new experience to support the deployment of CCS elsewhere in Europe and around the world. The project would have demonstrated the viability of the entire CCS chain – capture, transportation, injection and storage – and abated more than a million tonnes of CO₂ a year.

With Italy recently abandoning plans to reinvigorate its nuclear industry in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, abandoning a major low emissions coal project will have significant implications for Italy’s energy security and future economic growth. This decision comes on the same day that a major new report highlights the potential benefits of developing a CCS industry, with Scotland forecast to create 5000 jobs in an industry expected to boost their economy by £3billion.

Forcing Italy to abandon this project is misguided when the role of coal and CCS in meeting future energy and environmental challenges is so compelling.

The IEA forecasts that CCS will contribute 19% of global CO₂ mitigation through to 2050 and their analysis shows that climate change action will cost an additional US$4.7 trillion without CCS.

The IEA also forecasts that coal will remain the backbone of global electricity production well into the 2030s, and, likely beyond because of its inherent benefits in terms of affordability, security of supply and wide distribution. A short-sighted approach to energy policy that looks to derail the deployment of coal-based electricity and CCS will have significant consequences for both global energy security and ambitious CO₂ reduction targets.

Enel, one of Europe’s biggest energy providers, has already indicated it is looking at other options in response to the decision. With significant European funding available for the deployment of CCS, we can be hopeful that the set-back experienced for this project will be overcome soon.

But governments must look to the bigger picture and consider the important challenges presented by growing energy demand and the ambition to meet climate goals.