In Italy, residential heating has a high polluting value, with 17.5 million homes heated with methane gas: the residential sector alone is responsible for 64% of the quantity of fine particles Pm2.5, 53% of Pm10 and 60% of carbon monoxide (CO) emitted in 2018, thus contributing to the worsening of air quality, especially in large cities in the Center-North.
In Italy, the heating of residential, commercial and public buildings accounts for over 17.7% of CO2 emissions, according to data from Ispra.
This is what emerges from the new study "A strategy for the decarbonization of building heating systems in Italy" carried out by Elemens for Legambiente and Kyoto Club according to which in 2021 "domestic heating still contributes significantly to polluting our cities and overheating the Planet ".
The study investigates the state of the heating systems in the country and the related gas emissions, as well as the intervention priorities, and the proposals drawn up by the two environmental organizations, which aim at the immediate elimination of the superbonus for gas boilers and by 2025 as a strategic date to ban the installation of new fossil-fueled plants.
Legambiente and the Kyoto Club underline that domestic heating is "encouraged by a series of environmentally harmful subsidies and by measures that, most recently the eco-bonus, instead of pushing only renewable energy plants also favor fossil fuel ones. Yet, alternatives to systems centralized systems powered by gas and diesel, which in our country mainly characterize large urban agglomerations, already exist and are highly competitive with zero-emission technologies and renewable sources.