On 17 November, as part of the “green” economic diplomacy initiatives, the Embassy of Italy in Brussels, in collaboration with the Permanent Representation of Italy in Brussels, and the energy infrastructure operator SNAM, convened a round table on the energy transition and on the role of hydrogen in decarbonising the energy, industrial, and transport sectors, in accordance with climate objectives.
The round table, which took place in front of a qualified audience of Belgian and European institutional and entrepreneurial representatives of the industrial and energy sectors, was opened with speeches by Kadri Simson, the EU Commissioner for Energy, and Fabio Massimo Castaldo, Vice-President of the European Parliament. The participants on the panel, which was moderated by Sonja van Renssen, the Managing Editor of Energy Monitor, were Marco Alverà, the CEO of SNAM; Tudor Constantinescu, Principal Adviser to the Director General for Energy in the European Commission; Monica Frassoni, President of the European Alliance to Save Energy; Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Secretary General of Hydrogen Europe; and Guntram Wolff. Director of the Bruegel think tank.
The round table was an opportunity for Italy to present itself as an advanced centre of excellence in the field of energy and ecological transition, in line with the Italian government’s commitment to fight climate change, as witnessed by its presidency of the G20 and its co-chairmanship, together with the UK, of COP26, and to confirm its commitment to undertake a structured collaboration for the future on this crucial sector, together with its Belgian counterparts, within the European framework.
