Renewable energy production continues to grow (+8%), final energy consumption is increasing (+2%) and there is a significant slowdown in the decline of CO₂ emissions (-1% compared to -7% recorded in the first half of the year). This is what emerges from ENEA Analysis of the Italian energy system for the third quarter of 2024, which also highlights a worsening of the ENEA energy transition index ISPRED (Index Security and Prices of Energy supply and Decarbonization), which reached a new low, mainly because the decarbonization targets for 2030 are currently farther away.

Producing electricity on the lunar surface via small nuclear-powered plants. This is the goal of the all-Italian SELENE project (Lunar Energy System with Nuclear Energy) funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and led by ENEA, in collaboration with the Energy Department at the Politecnico di Milano and Thales Alenia Space (Thales 63% and Leonardo 33%) in Italy. SELENE, which was among the winners of an ASI funding call in 2023 for the development of scientific experiments on the Moon, aims to study techniques for producing energy on our satellite, overcoming the limitations of traditional energy technologies. Four ENEA research centers are involved in the project: Frascati, Casaccia, Bologna and Brasimone.

Promoting the transition to the circular economy through environmentally friendly design practices, starting with seven virtuous examples, was the central theme of the 7th conference of the Italian Circular Economy Platform ICESP promoted by ENEA, held at the headquarters of the Metropolitan City of Rome.

The activities conducted by ENEA and INGV as part of the MACMAP project showed that in 2023 temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea reached the highest thermal value since the beginning of modern records, with an increase in average surface temperature of more than 1°C in 25 years, a progressive increase since 2013 in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, extending northward, and warming of the deepest layers up to 800 meters.

A study conducted by ENEA and the CNR Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC), in collaboration with Sapienza University of Rome and Milano-Bicocca University as part of the project VIEPI, funded by Inail and published in the journal Environmental Pollution, found that in urban areas indoor air conditions may be just as harmful to human health as outdoor conditions and can lead to lung, heart and cancer diseases.

At the remote Little Dome C site in Antarctica, a research team representing twelve scientific institutions from ten European nations has just achieved a historic milestone for climate science. As part of the European-funded Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice project, the team successfully concluded a decisive drilling campaign, reaching the depth of 2,800 meters—where the Antarctic ice sheet meets the bedrock.