The transition towards a sustainable energy mix

Faced with a world that is constantly changing and that has an increasingly urgent need to protect the environment, Eni has decided to change its energy mix, combining natural gas and renewables. This model links economic, social and environmental sustainability to the rising energy demands and the ever more urgent challenges posed by climate change. Our commitment translates into a decarbonization plan to make our business sustainable in the long term. The plan is based on:

• promoting natural gas as an energy source and transition fuel
• investing in industrial projects and research into renewable energies
• reducing emissions in our Upstream sector to zero by 2030
• committing to reforestation

The combination of natural gas and renewables is the ideal solution for creating a future with low CO₂ emissions. It is the quickest and most efficient way to completely remove coal from power plants.

The energy response to the climate change challenge is in transformation

The most important conference on climate change in 2018 was without doubt COP24, the 24th UN Conference of the Parties on this issue, which took place in Katowice on 15 December. Politicians, scientists and experts from all over the world came together to discuss and settle on collective measures to counteract the effects caused by the increase in the Earth's temperature.

In November 2016, the Paris Agreement on climate change came into effect. The International Energy Agency (IEA) wrote that it is "at its heart, an agreement on energy". Year on year, the energy sector's responsibility is growing as regards greenhouse gas emissions, which is why Eni's transformation is crucial to reaching the goals set out in the Agreement.

The role of natural gas in sustainable energy

Promoting natural gas is a key factor of our decarbonization strategy. Combined with renewables, it is the most efficient energy source for the transition to a fully sustainable model. Gas-fired power plants are more efficient from an environmental point of view and produce around half the CO₂ emissions of coal-fired power stations. In terms of costs, gas is a highly competitive, reliable and safe resource, therefore it is the best energy source to fuel the electric power system with significant flexibility. Gas is also readily available and easily accessible. For this reason, more than half of Eni's current hydrocarbon portfolio is made up of projects linked to gas.

Renewable energies: putting our expertise towards efficiency

We have over 30 years' experience in the field of renewables, both in Italy and around the world. It is fundamental that we develop these energies in the countries where we operate in order to move our business model towards a low-carbon scenario. We created the New Energy Solutions Department with the objective of launching large-scale projects for producing energy from renewable sources in Italy and abroad. Rather than diverging from Eni's traditional business, the new Department is an integration, an enrichment, and a chance to seize opportunities that create value in the long term. Over the last two years, we have supported projects at our plants in Italy and in the African and Asian countries where we operate that have significant potential. These projects produce energy from renewable sources, which improves our energy efficiency and promotes access to energy as a cooperation model in the countries where we operate.