EUR 1.1 billion allocated to the development of agrivoltaics by the Italian NRRP

The Italian NRRP is made up of six missions. The first chapter of Mission 2 “Green Revolution and Ecological Transition” — on renewable energy, hydrogen, network and sustainable mobility — is dedicated to agrivoltaic development, which will be granted a total of EUR 23.78 billion. In particular, under the heading, “Increasing the share of energy produced from renewable energy sources,” EUR 5.9 billion is allocated, of which EUR 1.1 billion is for the development of agrivoltaics. The NRRP sets forth the objective of installing a production capacity of 1.04 GW from agrivoltaic plants for a total estimated production of at least 1,300 GWh/year of electricity, with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions estimated at around 0.8 million tons of CO2.

Ministry of Economic Development signs decree implementing IPCEI fund, allocating EUR 1.7 billion for incentives

Through the Decree of the Ministry of Economic Development dated 21 April 2021 (“Decree“) the general criteria and procedures for granting the incentives of the IPCEI fund — a facilitating tool aimed at providing contributions to Italian companies participating in Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) — have been defined. The main aim is to strengthen national competitiveness by supporting R&D&I projects and first industrial applications, provided that these proposals fall within the strategic value chains identified by the European Commission. Batteries, microelectronics, high-performance computing, hydrogen and health are the main sectors that will benefit from the new IPCEI fund.

The text of the Decree is available through this link.

Bank of Italy adopts its Responsible Investment Charter to foster ESG finance

The Bank of Italy adopted the Responsible Investment Charter, which sets out the bank’s vision of sustainability and includes the principles and the reference criteria underlying the sustainable management of its financial investments; it also outlines the precise commitments through which it intends to make its work on a sustainable model for economic growth more concrete. The charter applies to those financial assets managed under the bank’s own responsibility, namely its financial portfolio and foreign exchange reserves investments. It does not apply to monetary policy portfolios, however, as they are managed by the Eurosystem.

The Bank of Italy’s Responsible Investment Charter is available through this link.