ATENA, the map of Italian decarbonisation

The climate challenge is not only about protecting the environment. Also at stake is the country’s economic and industrial future: competitiveness, innovation, quality of work. This is why the energy transition cannot be entrusted to slogans or good intentions. We need clear objectives, measurable indicators and, above all, tools to understand whether Italy is really going in the right direction.

It is from this need that ATENA – Atlas of National Energy Transition, the first database that collects and integrates in a single platform the main indicators on the decarbonisation of the Italian system. A map, elaborated by Italy for Climate, designed to navigate the path towards the 2030 and 2050 climate goals.

A compass for climate goals

The European Union has set stringent targets: drastic reduction of emissions by 2030 and climate neutrality by mid-century. But translating these goals into concrete action, sector by sector, is by no means a given. ATENA was created precisely to fill this information gap, offering an updated and coherent snapshot of the state of Italy’s energy transition.

The platform processes only official data, organising it in an accessible and comparable way. The result is a tool to answer fundamental questions: how much are we emitting today? In which areas are we improving and where, on the other hand, are we lagging behind? What is the real distance between the current situation and the targets set by European and national policies?

Four key areas under the lens

ATENA takes an in-depth look at the four pillars of decarbonization: industry, transportation, buildings, and agriculture. For each sector, trends in climate-changing emissions, energy consumption, and the trajectory needed to align with medium- and long-term goals are reconstructed.

Not only that. The Atlas also allows a direct comparison with other EU countries, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of the Italian model. A useful exercise to understand whether the country is keeping pace with its European partners or whether it risks falling behind in precisely the most strategic sectors.

Data, scenarios and technology choices

Another added value of Atena is its focus on technological challenges. The transition is not an abstract process: it passes through concrete choices on energy efficiency, electrification, renewables, industrial innovation and transformation of production systems. The Atlas helps link numbers to policies, showing which levers are already active and which require acceleration.

In this sense, Athena does not merely describe the present, but suggests a dynamic reading of the future, which is useful for assessing the consistency between stated goals and policies actually implemented.

Designed for policymakers, businesses, researchers and students, Atena is also a useful tool for the information world. In a public debate that is often confused or polarised, having a solid and shared database is essential to tell the energy transition with rigour, avoiding simplifications and misleading narratives.

The platform is free and searchable online, with the ambition of becoming a stable reference point for those who want to understand, numbers in hand, how the Italian energy system is changing-or should change.