The ETS should be suspended until the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East end. The proposal comes from Descalzi of Eni. Altadia invests in the district, inaugurating the Global Innovation Hub. Federica Minozzi recounts the aesthetic research of Iris Group. We'll take you to the 30th anniversary party of Ceramicanda.
Starting from Via Emilia in Santo Stefano, hello.
It's a succession of shutters down, of shops that are closing or have closed. Look, it's incredible. Reggio Emilia.
And so one wonders and asks oneself whether there aren't, for the shopkeepers, the conditions to perhaps express themselves better, but it's something that hurts to see so many shop windows, so many shops, look, shuttered down.
For rent. Closed businesses.
And I could go on and on, infinitely. I mean, I didn't believe it, I read it in the papers, but I didn't think the situation was so, so critical. There's another one on the other side, for rent.
If I ask myself what the Municipality can do, what the authorities can do to remedy this carnage — it is a carnage of businesses — I mean, there are more closed shops than open ones, and we are on the very central Via Emilia in Reggio Emilia.
Welcome back with Ceramicanda, here with Roberto Caroli and Daniela D'Angeli.
Well, we wanted to greet you with these images you were able to see. They are images of Reggio Emilia, the central Via Emilia in the historic centre, where the shops that have closed in recent years follow one after another. It's said that one in three has lowered its shutter. This is nothing new, I'm telling you about it today, but you will have learned it from the papers in recent years. In short, the fact that 12,000-13,000 workers have lost their jobs because of these closures. The reasons are different, everyone thinks as they please. In short, the shopping centres in the suburbs, e-commerce, the fact that one can buy online, the high rents in city centres. Well, I believe that the most serious problem is not to be found in the economy, because certainly it's sad to lose a job, to lose wealth, but it's agonizing for a citizen who goes to these places on Saturday, on Sunday — I've become lazy, I move around little, I rarely go into the city, it was by chance that I was there last Saturday. The reference of the initial images is precisely to that moment.
But I remember when, as a boy, we used to go into the centre of Reggio, we used to go for a walk — once we called it 'la vasca', let's go to Reggio to do a 'vasca' because Reggio was beautiful, one relaxed and felt good, one found serenity — to see all these lights, this vitality, this life that is no longer there today. The feeling one experiences, the state of mind one experiences in those moments, and these are states of mind that range from desolation, from melancholy, from bitterness, all the way to unease, to bewilderment, to anguish, because that is the gravity of it. I mean, today we need something else, we need to find serenity again, we need to find each other in such a complicated moment. It's difficult, and we no longer know where to go. Do we have to go into the shopping centres and lock ourselves in there? I mean, we no longer have the right to take a walk, to see shops open. In short, I believe that a solution should be sought — it's not up to me to find it, I don't have a magic wand — but that situation is disturbing and beyond question.
Let's return to the topics that closely concern our ceramics. There was a particular proposal regarding the suspension of the ETS at the latest Cersaie.
Well yes, this Descalzi, we should put a halo of a saint on him, because motorists have already put one on him, right? The fact that thanks to him, thanks to the fact that at some filling stations petrol doesn't exceed €2 per litre, today they're even talking about wanting to abolish the ETS. Well, that's a very important thing. Let's see.
Suspend the ETS system until the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East end, which are creating extraordinary tensions on the global energy market. The proposal came from Claudio Descalzi of Eni from the stage of the annual Cersaie conference. A speech that began with a strong downplaying of the role of renewable energies.
No one did the math on a system, an electric grid that, by inserting an unpredictable, non-interruptible component like the renewable one, needs a growth that is not linear but exponential. Let me give you a very simple number. In 2005, more or less — now I may be off by something — in 2005 we had an electric grid of 35,000 km and we had a RAB, so a cost for this grid of 5 billion. After 20 years we have a grid of 75,000 km, a cost of 25 billion in RAB, so costs that we pay to maintain this grid.
In 2005 we transported — I may be off by something — about 340 TWh. Today, spending five times more and doubling the grid, we transport 310-320, less, because we are entering almost a situation of saturation, because renewables imply a fact of interruptibility, not continuity, and above all they cannot be stopped when there is an excess. Typically you have renewable energy when you don't need it. This is all based on this unfortunately ideological vision; obviously energy security was not being discussed because it wasn't considered, but neither was it considered what gave us security, who gave us energy security.
Now who is doing well? The states that have primary resources are doing well. In our case, that's not the case with gas. Obviously, beyond the primary resource, what is missing? Refining is missing. Refining is what doubles the cost of oil. The problem is that both chemicals and refining have been considered — not by Italy but by Europe — as something that could be moved in a globalized world and anyway the emissions had to be exported, which in a world that isn't that big and an atmosphere that isn't segregated by states and geographies is obviously an idiocy, right? It's an idiocy, but in the good sense. It's a fact that one says 'No, let's export chemicals, let's export refining, so we'll be cleaner.' Absolutely not. You have to reduce the carbon content, change the types of products, but above all not think that energy is substitutive. Energy has always been additive. Coal was followed by oil, then gas was added, then renewables were added. Instead, in the last 10 years, with great foresight, intelligence, depth and competence, it was thought to say: everything gets removed and we put in only renewables. So we gave renewables almost a religious, ideological, political role, telling people truths that were not completely true, and we're still continuing. This is the context, because then he says: what can we do? We built this thing, this situation over decades — with energy it's not a joke, you can't say 'Now I change car', it's not like that, 'Now I change city', it's not like that. Energy keeps us all connected with choices made 10, 20, 30, 40 years earlier, and they are not substitutive but additive.
According to Descalzi, the ETS system, as conceived and applied, seriously risks killing industry.
If we have to look beyond the macro-figures and the reasons — then we can talk about the long term, the medium term, but in the short term. Well, what we have to do — I think the government has expressed it very well — in a super extraordinary situation that was thought at various times to end in March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, and the situation is becoming more complicated, not improving. The issue of the ETS has been said several times by Italy: it must be suspended. I say, the ETS is right — probably taxing polluters is right — if the ETS money is then invested to improve polluting processes. We know perfectly well that that's not the case, so it's a farce. Well, let's say it's not a farce, it's a serious thing, but even if it is a serious thing, since we have practically killed the automotive industry and a whole supply chain, we risk killing also the whole ceramics sector, the cement works. Chemicals are dead, refining — well, we exported it, now we're paying the consequences. The ETS must be suspended, not abolished, suspended. He says: 'As long as the situation of Hamas, of Russia is of this type, and the medium-long term diversification — where in South America the Americans, even having energy, are committing themselves to have even more energy, a lot in South America, and in Asia and in Africa we manage to recover as investments, because in the last 15 years investments in oil and gas were reduced by 50%, about 400 billion against the 900 billion of before, because they said they weren't needed.' So that's the other mistake. Well, as long as the medium-long term doesn't help us, the ETS, which is a cost that has destroyed several types of sectors, must absolutely be blocked.
According to the chief executive officer of Eni, there are market shares that Europe is losing and it will be difficult to recover them precisely because of the excessively high energy costs.
We are blocking gas, blocking anything that could come to Europe's aid, and Europe, however, needs oxygen to breathe. It is a huge market, a huge industry, and it is being destroyed. Obviously the space left by Europe will be filled by someone else. It could be the Americans, certainly it will be the Chinese, the Asians, the Indians. All this space we will not be able to recover, because recovering it takes time, money, focus, pragmatism, speed — things that don't characterize us. So I think the ETS must be tackled immediately. I also think that in the field of gas, of renewables, of the whole electrical structure — I think Confindustria has said it several times, the president has given a very clear and very simple, objective vision of the actions. Something can be done, but clearly the European energy mix is different. We don't have nuclear, while France is at 70%. Spain is very good from the renewables point of view, but 20% nuclear, and on top of that it has about 54 billion cubic meters of regasification capacity against its own consumption of 30 billion. So it has a regasification heritage that allows it, if it wants, to bring in gas — because it also has low regasification costs — creating supply above demand, because the only way to keep prices low is for supply to exceed demand.
Well, when something is inaugurated here in the ceramic district of Reggio Emilia and Modena, it's a joy. We talked at the beginning about shops closing, shutters coming down. In short, the fact of seeing a group like Altadia decide to invest, to invest in a laboratory that will serve all the sites in the world is something that is pleasing. Let's listen.
Connecting Science, Industry, Engineering, Academy and Design, the new Global Innovation Hub of Altadia, a place born to create the solutions of the future.
We are here today to inaugurate our innovation centre and the global innovation centre of the Altadia group, which aims to create a virtuous ecosystem between us and Altadia, all our clients, all our partners. Altadia is one of the leading companies in our sector and we believe strongly in innovation. We believe that innovation is the only answer when thinking about the future, even in times of crisis. And that is why two years ago we made the deliberate decision to go ahead with the Global Innovation Hub here in Italy. Why Italy? Because Italy is well known for its excellence in many fields. Certainly in terms of design, certainly as far as the ceramic industry is concerned in terms of production, it is a sort of model of reference in the world, if you will. Italy — we hear it said, I hear it as a newcomer to the sector — all over the world, and so there wasn't even a moment, not even a doubt about where we would do it. The decision was obvious, the choice was clear: it would be in Italy. It will be a place where we dedicate time to creating a new vision of the future of ceramics in order to get out of this sector crisis that is hitting us. But innovation, in our opinion, is the strongest pillar for changing our future. From my point of view, innovation is the only adequate answer to the crisis, because innovation fundamentally means transforming into value ideas that serve our clients today and in the future. And wherever we do it, there is no doubt that value will be generated and we can monetize this value or part of it. It is positive for our business and it is positive for the entire sector.
Inside this Innovation Hub we have super sophisticated laboratories, but also a pilot line that is a representation of the whole of what is Kiln and our pilot line gives a representation of all the present technologies and those that will also be the technologies of the future. It is very important that it uses our technologies, those of the district, and it is very important that it pushes towards future research, which is what will once again make our district become a protagonist despite the regulations that at the moment are giving us many difficulties, but on which it seems that tonight we may be able to work a little.
The Altadia group does a lot of research, innovative research. We are among the suppliers with which Altadia collaborates and we always manage to do beautiful things, innovative things, fresh things, to give a bit of the fashion and trend guidelines. It is a great signal, it is a positive thing for the whole district because it is right to do innovation that starts from Sassuolo. Made in Italy — I am a great supporter of it — and it is right that we maintain it and create many beautiful things in Italy.
It is a very beautiful thing, it is very pleasing to see that there is still the possibility of investing in Italy at this level. A company like Altadia deciding to have an Innovation Hub here in Italy is a source of pride because it gives us again the feeling of being able to be at the highest levels of research.
