Chief Executive Officer and General Manager, Eni
CLAUDIO DESCALZI | SPAZIO COLDIRETTI
Claudio Descalzi, Amministratore Delegato di Eni, affronta le sfide della transizione energetica senza risparmiare critiche all’approccio ideologico dell’Europa con il green deal.
Commenta la spinta dell’Ue verso l’auto elettrica, nonostante la crisi dell’automotive, e illustra a che punto siamo sullo sviluppo dei biocarburanti.
Infine, riflette sul tema nucleare con particolare attenzione alla fusione, spiegando l’impegno di Eni su questo fronte.
#Coldiretti #SpazioColdiretti #ForumAgricoltura2025
About Claudio Descalzi
Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni, appeared before the Productive Activities Commission in Rome on July 16, 2026, to discuss the state of the energy market in Italy and Europe. During the hearing, Descalzi stated that a race is underway involving artificial intelligence, hyperscale data centers, critical minerals, and their refining, which he said requires a large amount of energy. He asserted that only two participants are in this race, the United States and China, and that "no one else" is involved. Descalzi also criticized the European Commission, saying that Europe has "done everything to destroy chemistry" and that the Commission is effectively telling companies to leave Europe. He stated that Eni has not received any support or contributions from the EU and that Europe has "continued to fight" the company. The hearing covered topics including energy security, the development of the Brindisi hub, and prospects for nuclear energy and hydrogen in Italy, particularly in relation to Africa.
Transcript (6 segments)
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Interviewer0:10
Dr. Descalzi, you together with Coliretti were among the few in Italy to raise doubts about the European Green Deal, about the repercussions for security and competitiveness of our continent. So, in the presence of current scenarios, is it possible to continue with the energy transition?
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Claudio Descalzi0:27
No, I absolutely think we must continue because billions have been invested, businesses have been created, some subsidized, some not. The criticism of the Green Deal is not about the substance, in the sense that we need to decarbonize, yes, we need to create additional energy sources compared to what we have, yes, but above all because it has been reduced to slogans. So slogans mean short term, short term, they mean superficiality, they mean ideology. So when we talk about the Green Deal, we talk about new technologies, there is nothing ideological, there are tools to give a positive impact to society. So that was the criticism. Going back, I think it is absolutely not only impossible, but also not useful, because, as I said, the demand for energy is ever greater and so we need as a society, as an industry, to put in place all possible tools, renewables certainly, whether it is wind, solar, nuclear, everything we have, additive energy, and obviously the Green Deal had the first problem, besides being a slogan, of setting objectives looking only at a transformation of supply without realizing that demand not only grew, but remained in its composition practically the same. So the present must be satisfied by decarbonizing it.
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Interviewer2:21
There is the automotive crisis, the European Union continues to push for electric, for electric cars, but there are alternatives. You mentioned biofuels, for example. So, where are we with their development?
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Claudio Descalzi2:36
Biofuels are more than a reality. Already now we are at a level of 20 million tonnes which by 2030 should reach 450 million tonnes. Obviously they cover especially those areas where electric cannot reach. I see electric and biofuels as complementary. We at Eni invest a lot in the electricity grid, so we are indirectly investing not only in electricity, but also in electric vehicles, which are then our natural customers of our network, our service stations. Biofuels complement it because all traction, heavy tires, all the naval part, SAF, so airplanes can hardly enter a discourse of strong and continuous electricity with renewables. So I see them as complementary. Europe, always within what we were saying, with an exasperated Green Deal, especially on slogans, on objectives, without considering the paths, the investments, and only focusing on subsidies when there is no fiscal space and margin, has created a dualism, almost an alternative and a contraposition. And as I said, we are not talking about ideological facts, so there is no need to go towards a contraposition, but a complementarity of sources.
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Interviewer4:13
Let's move on to nuclear. There is an important gap to recover. The government is focusing a lot on it. You at Eni are involved in fusion, so, can we hope for it?
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Claudio Descalzi4:25
No, we must certainly hope for it, we must work on it because, as we said, the new needs, electricity is rising and the new needs impose an addition of energy. Nuclear with gas, with coal for the moment are the only factors that can give continuity to an industry that needs energy continuity. There are not only refineries, cement plants or refining, but there is all the now mature development of Hyperscale Data Centers, so large computing centers plus supercomputers plus artificial intelligence that are demanding immense amounts of energy, so it is clear that without nuclear it becomes very complex. We also see on energy costs. Nations like France that have nuclear are those that have the lowest cost for the electricity part in Europe. Then comes Spain which has 20% nuclear. We, Germany, and obviously without nuclear, Germany closed it, we have unsustainable costs. So also in this case, looking at the present and the future, we must not only hope for it, we must work concretely. The government has issued a delegation decree for nuclear and so now there is a whole process that must be addressed. However, nuclear is not only an Italian necessity, important for us because we have no other energy sources, but a necessity at a global level.