Energy demand in Italy collapsed by 10% last year.

A new analysis by the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) suggests the drop in energy consumption was the highest since Second World War and was followed by a 12% fall in carbon dioxide emissions.

The findings also show the sharp decrease in oil and coal demand pushed the share of fossils in the energy mix to its lowest level since 1961.

The report also finds that imports of low carbon technologies increased by 27%, a rise that was mainly driven by battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries – taken together, these products covered 56% of total low carbon products imports last year.

That compares to 33% of low carbon imports in 2019.

Francesco Gracceva, ENEA Analyst, said: “The drop in energy consumption in 2020 is the strongest since 1943-44, during the Second World War, indeed, during the most recent crisis, that is the financial crisis of 2009, energy demand fell by just 5,7%.

“60% of the drop in primary energy consumption depends on oil, as road and air traffic had a sharp fall during the year; this is why the drop in energy consumption is greater than that of GDP, -8.9%, leading to a decrease in energy intensity.”