New political leaders in Italy and Spain have brightened the
outlook for renewables in two of Europe’s biggest energy markets.
In Italy, the fourth-largest economy in Europe, new Prime
Minister Giuseppe Conte said in his inaugural speech this month that “we will work to
speed up the process, already in progress, of the ‘decarbonization’ of our
production system.”
Conte was sworn in as a caretaker head of state after months
of wrangling between the two coalition partners that emerged from Italy’s
latest elections.
The center-right federation called League (Lega in
Italian) and the populist Five Star Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle or M5S) both
claim a commitment to environmental causes that might affect energy
policy.
And last month Platts reported the coalition had agreed on measures
including greater support for electric vehicles and renewables.
In Spain, citizens are still reeling from a change in
government that took place within a week.
There, Pedro Sánchez used a no-confidence vote to oust
Mariano Rajoy as prime minister after senior figures in Rajoy’s right-wing
People’s Party (Partido Popular or PP in Spanish) were convicted of
corruption.
Pulling a cabinet together over the weekend after the vote,
Sánchez put distance between his center-left Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido
Socialista Obrero Español or PSOE) and the PP.
His pick to lead energy policy was an acknowledged climate
action advocate. On taking office, Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera
was hailed as representing “a 180-degree turn in the fight against climate change in
Spain.”
She is widely expected to seek a repeal of Spain’s notorious
solar self-consumption "tax
on the sun," and in one of her first ministerial interviews said,
“I don’t think coal has much of a future.”
Ribera’s stance contrasts that of the PP, which clamped down
on admittedly out-of-control renewable subsidy payments in 2011 and then
steadfastly refused to offer any concessions to the industry afterward.
Plant owners found themselves in a regulatory quagmire as
the rules of the game continued to change. Wind and solar installation rates
plummeted.
Only in the last couple of years, as Spain came close to
missing European targets for renewables adoption, did the PP open the door to
developers with a series of auctions. Even then, renewable energy groups
criticized the design of the auctions.
Although Spain’s new government appears committed to a
different approach, it remains to be seen how much the administration can
achieve in practice.
Sánchez’s party only has 84 representatives in Spain’s
350-seat Congress of Deputies, making it the smallest minority government in
the recent history of the nation. And political allies could be hard to find as
rivals to the left and right of the PSOE push for elections.
In Italy, meanwhile, Conte’s room for political maneuver
could be hampered by the need to service an estimated €2.3 trillion ($2.7
trillion) in debt. Foreign investors may also be wary of the
anti-European rhetoric that helped propel Lega and M5S to power.
For now, though, European policymakers are all in on
renewables. According to Euractiv, the European Council upped its 2030
renewable energy target from 27 percent to between 30 percent and 33
percent.
The target is currently being discussed by the Council, the
European Commission and the European Parliament, which was pushing for 35
percent but has now cut its proposal to 34 percent.
The recent changes in Italy and Spain could have a decisive
effect on negotiations, said WindEurope chief policy officer Pierre Tardieu in
a press release. “We've been pushing hard for a 35 percent renewable energy
target,” he said. “There's clear political momentum in this direction as new
governments in Spain and Italy could put their weight behind an ambitious
target; 132,000 jobs and €92 billion [$108 billion] of investments in wind depend
on it.”
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