Italy Negotiating Renewables Deal with Algeria, Libya

Italy is negotiating a memorandum of understanding on renewable energy with Algeria and Libya as it seeks to pivot from its dependence on Russian gas amid the Ukraine war, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Monday.

"We are at work for a diversification of energy sources, we are negotiating memoranda of understanding with Algeria and Libya on the development of renewable sources, and with Tunisia on green hydrogen," he said at the XIII joint conference of the Italian foreign and aid ministry (MAECI) and the Bank of Italy.

"As Elon Musk said a few days ago, the father of electrification and mobility, I hate to say it but we must increase our production of oil and gas immediately.

"Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures".

Di Maio called the Ukraine war the "gravest crisis in Europe since the Second World War.

"Our economies and societies, already hard hit by the pandemic, are now faced with the gravest political, military and humanitarian crisis on European territory since the Second World war.

"A conflict that has radically changed the geopolitical, strategic and security picture against the backdrop of an emergency, climate change, that is no less explosive.

"In the three years that have passed since the last edition of the Conference due to COVID, the world has changed profoundly".