Italy falling behind 2030 energy transition targets, report says

ROME, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Italy has met only 15% of its energy transition targets for 2030, the ECCO climate change think tank said on Monday in an annual monitoring report.

• Italy is making "positive but insufficient" progress on renewables, having installed around 7 gigawatts of new capacity last year, short of the 10 GW per year needed to reach 2030 targets

• Growth in renewables is still held back by slow permitting and grid connection queues clogged by speculative applications, ECCO said

• In 2025, greenhouse gas emissions rose by around 9 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent compared to the previous year, it added

• To meet its 2030 EU energy and climate targets, Italy now needs to cut emissions by approximately 95 million tons of CO2 equivalent from 2025 levels, or around 25% of total national emissions

• Italy is also largely off track regarding its target to increase the number of electric cars, with around 445,000 on the road last year, well short of an objective of 4.3 million by 2030

• ECCO also flagged delays in green transition targets for buildings, industry, gas phase-out and the electrification of energy consumption

• Italy's Environment and Energy Security Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment

(Reporting by Alvise Armellini; Editing by Joe Bavier)