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".
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