Italy

Emissions Profile

Italy is the world's 36th largest emitter of methane. Approximately 39 percent of its anthropogenic methane emissions—13.3 MMTCO2E—come from landfills, natural gas and oil systems, and coal mines.

Italy 2005 Methane Emissions

Source: 2006 USEPA Report: Global Anthropogenic Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions:1990-2020 http://www.epa.gov/nonco2/econ-inv/international.html Exiting Methane to Markets.

Experience and Opportunities for Methane Projects

Italy has long national experience with methane projects and has already implemented pilot projects at the international level that involve natural gas technologies for combined heat and power, efficient energy final uses in housing and transportation, landfill gas recovery, methane gas associated with coal mining operations, and gas flaring and venting in oil extraction.

  • Landfills–Landfilling is the most widely adopted disposal solution in Italy, and landfill gas capture and/or use projects have recently undergone a sharp increase. Relevant projects have been carried out nationally, involving both simple electric energy recovery and cogeneration applications. At the international level, as part of the cooperation between Italy and China, a pilot project has been implemented to use recovered landfill gas for energy production, addressing both waste management and local electricity needs. The project will aim at the preparation of national guidelines for landfill gas recovery in China. Furthermore, a number of landfill gas recovery and reuse projects are under assessment by Italian experts and investors in some Chinese sites. Several activities are underway for their development as CDM projects.
  • Coal and mines–Italy is active in research and feasibility studies concerning coal mine methane, coalbed methane, and enhanced coalbed methane. A relevant ongoing project concerns the Sulcis coal basin (in Sardinia), whose productive strata are as deep as 800 meters.
  • Oil and gas–Italy has considerable experience at both the national and international level on all the phases of the natural gas (NG) chain. NG plays a major role in the national energy supply, and its share is expected to increase in response to Kyoto Protocol commitments. Following is a brief listing of Italy's NG technologies and expertise:
    • Exploration: detection with advanced seismics, with a very high success ratio at finding NG reservoirs at great depth, both onshore (e.g., identification of residual and high-depth gasfields in the Po Valley) and offshore.
    • Production: safe gas production from high-depth, high-temperature strata (e.g., a Trecate field at a 6,000-meter depth); gas condensate recovery; acidic gas removal and sulfur management; liquefaction and regasification; flaring down projects (e.g., electricity production from previously flared gas in Kwale, Nigeria: 480 MWe through advanced combined cycle).
    • Storage: extensive experience with NG storage (the current Italian capacity is about 20 Bcm); ongoing extension of this expertise to geological CO2 sequestration.
    • Transportation and distribution: long-distance, high-pressure (about 140 bar with high-strength steels), high-capacity onshore pipelines raising breakeven distance to 5,000 kilometers; high-depth offshore pipelines (Algeria-Sicily Transmed, Black Sea Bluestream at the record depth of 2,150 meters, Lybia-Sicily pipeline); high-efficiency compression stations; maintenance through intelligent pigs; leak detection with aerial surveys.
    • Gas conversion: MTBE, syngas and hydrogen production; Fischer-Tropsch synthesis in a slurry reactor, methanol, dymethyl ether.
    • Utilization: design, construction, and operation of high-efficiency cogenerative combined cycle for refineries and petrochemical complexes; cogeneration units; compressed NG for public and private transportation; NGV vehicles; small-scale hydrogen production for fuel cells; micro-cogeneration with microturbines.

The Italian companies have a high level of expertise and are developing new technologies across the whole spectrum of the NG chain.

  • Agriculture: Biogas recovery is gradually increasing in the agricultural sector. Anaerobic digestion is operated in several livestock farms (especially pig farms) and cogeneration is widely adopted. New technology options (e.g. co-digestion of agro-industrial waste and manure) are also raising interest.

Internationally, Italy has undertaken several international initiatives in the agricultural field. In cooperation with the World Bank and the Chinese authorities, Italy has designed a "stand-alone" project on biogas recovery in a dairy farm in the Heilonjiang province. The project was approved by the Board of Directors of the World Bank at the end of last year and has now entered in its implementing phase.

The project was approved by the Board of the World Bank at the end of 2005. In addition, a number of Livestock gas projects (both pig farms and cow farms) are under assessment by Italian experts and investors, for their development as CDM projects in China.

Other Activities

Italy is also promoting projects and initiatives for methane capture and/or use in other fields, both nationally and internationally.

Transport: Under the cooperation with China, Italy has provided 300 innovative low-emissions engines, fueled by natural gas, to the Beijing municipality as a first step toward sustainable mobility in the 2008 Green Olympic Games. Following this donation, the Beijing Public Transportation Company purchased other 1000 high efficiency and low emission natural gas engines from the same Italian company.

Under the cooperation with Egypt, Italian vehicles fueled by natural gas will be circulating in Cairo central area. The project is under preparation and will envisage assembling activities in Egypt, training and capacity building, as well as enhancement of the natural gas distribution network.

Renewable Energies: The Mediterranean Renewable Energy Programme, launched by Italy with the participation of the countries, energy agencies, and energy companies of the region, along with UNEP and the World Bank, is supporting hybrid technologies combining renewables, biogas, and methane natural gas to supply electricity.

Bioenergy: In the Gleneagles Plan of Action, the G8 Leaders agreed on launching a Global Bioenergy Partnership, on the basis of an Italian initiative The text reads: "We [the G8] will promote the continued development and commercialisation of renewable energy by: [...] (d) launching a Global Bioenergy Partnership to support wider, cost effective, biomass and biofuels deployment, particularly in developing countries where biomass use is prevalent, following the Rome International Workshop on Bioenergy".

The Italian Government has organized and hosted in New York the official launch of the Global Bioenergy Partnership. It was held on 11th May 2006, during the Ministerial Segment of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD14), with a signing ceremony of the "Terms of Reference" of the Partnership.

All G8 Countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, U.S.A.), China, Mexico, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Energy Agency (IEA), United Nations Foundation and European Biomass Industry Association (EUBIA) are the Partners of the GBEP. The general purpose of the Global Bioenergy Partnership is to provide a mechanism for Partners to organise, coordinate and implement targeted international research, development, demonstration and commercial activities related to production, delivery, conversion and use of biomass for energy, with a particular focus on developing countries. It also provides a forum for implementing effective policy frameworks, identifying ways and means to support investments, and removing barriers to collaborative project development and implementation.

Carbon Finance: The Italian Ministry for the Environment Land and Sea has established the "Italian Carbon Fund" at the World Bank. The Fund has been designed both to purchase credits from emission reduction projects and to help developing countries achieve sustainable development by leveraging substantial investment in modern energy services and technologies. The Fund's portfolio includes projects in power generation from landfill gas recovery, methane gas associated with coal mining operations, and gas flaring and venting in oil extraction. Additionally, the Italian Ministry for the Environment Land and Sea has joined other carbon finance initiatives and has committed additional financial resources to the Community Development Carbon Fund and the Bio Carbon Fund, managed by the World Bank as well.

Committee Memberships

Italy has nominated representatives to the following:

  • Steering Committee
  • Agriculture Subcommittee
  • Coal Technical Subcommittee
  • Oil and Gas Technical Subcommittee
  • Landfill Technical Subcommittee (Co-Chair)

Italy Subcommittee Contacts.

Top of page