Paris climate summit a huge opportunity, says Eni CEO

23 novembre 2015

2 min di lettura

(AGI) New York, Nov 23 - The Paris summit on climate change is"a huge opportunity, and must not be missed. We must use it tothe maximum", said Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi. Mr Descalzi wastaking part in a symposium on climate at the Council on ForeignRelations in New York. "We've been discussing it for 21 yearsand for the first time there has been strong integration bothfrom the nations and from the Oil&Gas and energy companies onrecognising the problem. There is great awareness of climatechange. There are aggregations that enable proposals to be madeat company level, such as the Oil&Gas Climate Initiative, andat state level." The real challenge, he said, was to identifytargets and joint regulations in Paris. "Paris must not onlyset its sights on achieving a 2-degree level, because targetshave no meaning without regulations, and these must be appliedconsistently." Ahead of the Paris summit, Mr Descalzi explainedthat the UK was a good model with regard to cutting pollutionemissions. "The UK implements the Emissions PerformanceStandard (EPS), which establishes a maximum level of carbondioxide (CO2) emissions, and has cut emissions by 25 per cent.EPS has enabled the UK to move towards an extremely sustainableenergy mix, i.e. renewables and gas. These are the models weshould follow. In our calculations, we are already including aprice on CO2 to see just how sustainable they are. This issomething that must become the rule, otherwise the forums aresimply opportunities for exchanging ideas: we need concretethings in order to move ahead." On polluting emissions, he said"the regulations must be the same for everyone, otherwise itwon't work. In Europe we pay too much for energy because wehave major costs, and it is precisely this over-costly energythat has led to the introduction of carbon. We need to findconsistency within the EU and, as Europeans, we would expectthat the same regulations on carbon pricing and on carbon taxwould also be implemented by the other countries." The EU"accounts for around 9 percent of total emissions and is alonein concentrating on a positive energy mix. Crucially, equalconditions must be created, so that there is a level playingfield, with the same regulations. Otherwise, this gives rise toimbalances. Some people are paying for these imbalances, likethe European countries which have extremely high costs." (AGI). .