Scorecard summary:
Fulfilment of Rio Conference Commitment- Red
Current Government Position on Climate Change -Yellow
Per Capita CO2 Emissions - Green (7.03 metric tons per person in 1992)
National CO2 Emissions- Yellow (407 million metric tons in 1992).

OVERALL ASSESSMENT:
Relatively efficient, could do much more.

NATIONAL CLIMATE PROTECTION GOAL:
The Parliament agreed a resolution which was put to the government to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by year 2000. But Environment and Industry Ministries state that the only formal commitment is to stabilize CO2 emissions at European Union level.

SPECIFIC FEATURES:
Italy has a relatively low energy consumption per GDP (.14 tons of oil equivalent per 1000 $ in 1992) and per capita (2.7 tons of oil equivalent). The country is thus one of the most energy efficient in the EU. In addition, Italy has no nuclear power supply. Italy started work on the development of policies and measures at EU level during the Italian EU Presidency but is currently slowing down the achievement of an agreed reduction target for the EU.

NEGATIVE FEATURES:
Italy has no national target to limit greenhouse gas emissions and no consistent set of climate protection policies. Current sectoral policies as described in the First National Communication to the FCCC appear to be insufficient to achieve CO2 emissions stabilisation by the year 2000. Critical sectors where an increase in CO2 emission is likely to occur are: electricity production (5-10 percent increase in CO2 emissions foreseen by the year 2000 on the basis of 1990); and transport - the country has one car every 1.8 inhabitants, second only to US. Policies for energy saving (law 10/91) have not been fully implemented because of a lack of funds and institutional mechanisms.

POSITIVE FEATURES:
Due partly to the warm climate in most of the country, energy consumption in the residential sector remains low and there are also progressive electricity tariffs. There is an obligation for ENEL (National Electricity Agency) to purchase electricity from private producers at favorable prices which created conditions for the installation (already in place and under construction) of 8,000 MW production capacity from co-generation, renewable or similar (although these include some environmentally dangerous waste burning). These provisions risk to be cancelled in the process of privatisation of ENEL.

Sources: First National Communication to the FCCC, 1995; State of the Environment Report, Ministry of Environment, 1996; ISTAT.