Roberto Cingolani chooses unusual words for an environment minister.
"Two decades ago we produced around twenty billion cubic meters of gas a year, today it's only a measly three billion." That should change.
Ironically, Mario Draghi's man for ecology wants to double domestic production.
"This is intended to give Italian companies gas at lower costs," he says in an interview with the FAZ. Cingolani is not a fan of fossil fuels, but he is a realist.
Claudia Bröll
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Winand von Petersdorff-Campen
Economic correspondent in Washington.
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Christian Schubert
Economic correspondent for Italy and Greece.
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“A megawatt hour is a megawatt hour regardless of any ideologies.
That helps me a lot in my job,” he says.
And so he leaves no doubt that Italy needs to produce more of its own gas instead of sourcing it primarily from Russia.
He spoke in the same way before the start of the Ukraine war.
Italy has significant deposits in the Adriatic Sea and off its southern coasts.
He does not want to have new boreholes laid because gas should only remain an interim solution.
Just a few weeks ago, Cingolani could have been reviled as a defender of fossil fuels.
The conflict in Ukraine escalated by Russia has painfully revealed dependence on Russian raw materials.
And yet the question arises as to how long-term such considerations of the environment minister from Rome are.
Because by the middle of this century the burning of fossil fuels should be over.
Seven years ago in Paris, the countries of the world agreed to be climate-neutral by then.
Coal-fired power plants for emergencies
How do entrepreneurs who have gotten rich from powering the world with fossil fuels fit these decisions into their corporate strategy.
We spoke to four leaders on four continents who are betting that fossils will remain important for years to come.
They are investing in gas fields, coal mining, and LNG infrastructure on the planet that would be needed before the end of gas, coal, and oil.
And as befits good entrepreneurs and politicians, they also protect themselves against it.
Italy's retreat from fossils was only supposedly for environmental reasons.
The country has said goodbye to its own production, but contrary to what had been hoped, fossil fuels have not been replaced by renewable energies, but only by gas imports.
The war in Eastern Europe has forced it to diversify its sources faster than expected.
A replacement for the much more expensive gas imports is needed quickly.
"In case of emergency," as Cingolani says, Italy is even preparing to resort to coal-fired power, which has almost disappeared.
A power plant near Rome and one near Brindisi, which are currently only working on the back burner, could be ramped up.
"But we would really only do that in extreme cases, for example if we couldn't get any more gas from Russia overnight.
It would hopefully only be an emergency solution for a few weeks," says Cingolani.