Over the last decade, Italy had the largest increase (together with Germany) in its share of low-carbon generation among the 15 countries analysed, increasing from less than 26% to 42% of the total power mix, mainly thanks to newly built renewables-based capacity. This sharp increase resulted in a sharp reduction of the share of coal- (by two-thirds) and of oil-fired generation (by half), as well as a small reduction of the share of natural gas, which still accounts for almost 50% of the power mix today. This resulted in a drop of more than one-third of the CO2 intensity per unit of power generation over 2010‑2020.
Several policies and targets at European and national level underpin the goal to achieve the European Union’s net zero ambition by 2050 (EC, 2019) – the main overarching ones include: targets for 2030 (EC, 2020), the REPowerEU (EC, 2022) measures, the provisions of the national recovery and resilience plan (MEF, 2021), and the national energy plan (MISE, 2019). Achieving greater electrification in Italy requires strongly increasing the pace of electrification of its final uses, while also strongly accelerating the decarbonisation of power generation (Table 5.9.A). Efforts need to be raised in the electrification of the transport sector through accelerating the deployment of EVs, while a challenge for the industry sector will be to increase further from the already high share.