The finance programme aims to transform Italy’s public and private financial system, aligning it with the Paris Agreement to drive the ecological transition. It will draw from international progress on climate risk disclosure, the adoption of the European taxonomy, and commitments to align public spending and private portfolios with the goals of net-zero emissions, resilience, fossil fuel exclusion and increased green investments. This will be done through a dialogue and the leveraging of international best practices with major national financial institutions including CDP, SACE and Invitalia. The finance programme will also develop a proposal for environmental tax reform concurrent with the debate on reforming the European Stability Pact and achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal.
Cost of capital, climate risks and corporate transition plans: the empirical evidence
January 2026
This paper first aims to review the analytical characteristics and empirical findings of the main studies on climate risk premiums (CRP) and then to verify whether the adoption of
certified decarbonisation plans is associated with a lower risk assessment by financial markets and is therefore rewarded with a lower cost of capital.
Stranded assets and gas transport infrastructure in Italy
December 2025
Italy's gas infrastructure is in a dramatic lock-in: on the one hand, tariffs cannot be radically changed in favour of consumers without destabilising TSOs' capital; on the other hand, without a substantial change in pricing methods, the unfairness of the system is bound to increase dramatically, threatening the production system’s competitiveness and undermining the social sustainability of the country. The challenge is therefore strategic in scope and calls for an ambitious, forward-looking systemic vision to reorganise Italian TSOs.
Making national strategies in the EU investable
December 2025
This report, co-written by E3G and ECCO, focuses specifically on the interplay between national transition strategies at the Member State level and private sector transition plans. There is an un-grasped opportunity to make these levels of planning work together in harmony, creating an environment in which public finance can be directed to the transition more efficiently, and the private sector can better identify the opportunities for investing in activities that support the transition.
Financing the Energy Transition in the Mediterranean Region
November 2025
This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the financing landscape required for scaling up renewable energy development across the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, focusing on North Africa and the Levant, but excluding the Gulf countries. It maps key actors, analyses financial flows and instruments, identifies barriers and proposes recommendations.
Financing the energy transition in the Mediterranean region: the need for coordination
November 2025
To advance towards a renewable-based Mediterranean region, all existing multi-level initiatives, strategies and cooperation mechanisms need to operate within a coherent framework at the regional level, drawing on a functioning governance mechanism that is currently absent. To move from fragmentation to coordination and accelerate investment, this policy brief proposes four key recommendations.
Financial support for climate action: implications of the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion
November 2025
On 23 July 2025, the International Court of Justice unanimously issued an advisory opinion on states’ obligations in relation to climate change. This represents a decisive step in the juridicisation of the international climate regime, confirming it as a regime grounded in different sources of international law, which goes beyond COPs and the Climate Treaties.
Energy taxation and fossil fuel subsidies in Italy
October 2025
This paper focuses on the case of Italy, analysing how current fiscal and parafiscal levies on electricity are higher than those on fossil fuels, arguing that such preferential treatment of fossil products constitutes an environmentally harmful subsidy. The paper also discusses potential policy options for reviewing energy taxation, with the aim of better integrating environmental and social objectives while ensuring revenue streams for the Italian budget.
Italy’s contribution to international climate finance
October 2025
Italy, as a developed country Party to the UNFCCC and signatory to the Paris Agreement, is obliged to provide financial resources to support climate action in developing countries. This obligation has been further clarified by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its 2025 advisory opinion, which has confirmed that the duty to provide climate finance is legally binding.
Transition Plans, a tool for risk protection: the credibility of Oil&Gas plans
July 2025
The Transition Plans published by Italy’s leading oil and gas companies exhibit significant shortcomings, particularly in the quantitative analysis of risks, the planned reduction in hydrocarbon production, and transparency around geographic and regulatory dependencies. For these plans to be credible, they must go beyond simple reporting, incorporating rigorous analysis and a clear governance strategy that reduces uncertainty and decisively channels investment toward truly sustainable solutions.
Learnings from the Italian NRRP to inform the next MFF
May 2025
In this paper, we have assessed how the NRRP is being implemented and its current contribution to the achievement of climate objectives, four years after its adoption. To determine its progress, we have selected and examined a number of climate flagship measures within it, two reforms and four investments relevant to the climate and the energy transition. Based on the findings from our analysis, we have prepared policy recommendations that can inform discussions around the next Multiannual Financial Framework for the 2028-2034 period.
Moving towards a holistic transition planning framework in the EU
November 2024
This briefing, authored by ECCO and E3G, takes stock of the EU transition planning framework initiatives and calls for a systemic approach – moving towards a simple and holistic transition planning framework that aligns various governance systems and policy tools within the EU, while ensuring consistency with international climate goals such as the Paris Agreement.
Towards an international climate and development tax system: perspectives and opportinities
October 2024
The climate crisis and its associated costs have contributed substantially to placing international tax
cooperation high on the international agenda. Taxation can facilitate the energy transition
by disincentivising the use of fossil fuels; create additional resources to tackle climate change;
contribute to climate justice by taxing fossil-intensive activities in the most polluting countries and
allocating revenues to countries most vulnerable to climate change.
Monetary policy and climate transition: what can the ECB do for the European Green Deal?
September 2024
The European Central Bank (ECB) and the National Central Banks (NCBs) play a crucial role in the transition towards a net zero economy. This report analyses the actions of the European Central Bank with the aim of identifying ways in which the existing institutional structure and current macroeconomic context could allow it to provide more effective support to the European Green Deal.
Climate risks and banks’ capital requirements. A lever for the transition?
July 2024
Empirical evidence shows that capital requirements have a significant influence on both the volume of credit and the level of bank interest rates, and demonstrates that the use of macroprudential capital requirements can play a decisive role in mitigating the risks of transition generated by aggressive decarbonisation policies. These findings therefore show that macroprudential policies are a necessary complement to other climate policies in order to reduce the exposure to risk of financial intermediaries.
Italy and the debt crisis: what implications for the partnership with Africa
June 2024
In recent years, Italy has demonstrated a growing interest in the African continent, culminating with the Italy-Africa Summit in January 2024. In order to develop a mutually beneficial partnership with Africa, through the Mattei Plan and the leadership earned through the 2024 G7 presidency, Italy must listen and respond to the needs expressed by its African partners, which include a series of reform proposals of the international financial architecture.
G7 Financial Ministerial: the critical role of transition plans and the need for a systemic approach to finance
May 2024
G7 finance and climate tracks should align their strategy, find a common position and support a systemic approach to defining and financing national transition plans. Such a systemic approach developed by G7 is critical to give confidence, build trust and inform next set of finance and climate decisions at COP29 and COP30 on the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Italian G7 Presidency: the critical role of Transition Plans and the need for a systemic approach to finance
May 2024
Given the imperative to mobilize private investment at the scale required to address climate change, the effective deployment of funding, policies, and frameworks becomes paramount. In this context, it is imperative to place Transition Plans (TPs) at the heart of the G7 finance agenda as primary tools to re-orient and re-design private and public choices towards resilient and sustainable economic systems.
A European sovereign fund for the climate transition
May 2024
For the European Union, the estimated investment needed to implement the Green Deal would require a total annual investment in the 2021-2030 period of approximately 1,285 billion per year, equal to 8% of GDP of the EU in 2022. The setting up of a European energy and climate fund is therefore legally and technically feasible, and should be a decisive theme of political debate, particularly in light of the upcoming European Parliamentary elections and the renewal of the Commission.
