Daylight saving time: Italy is considering making it permanent

The Parliament works at possibility to introduce in Italy thesummer time in a manner permanente. As the next change of the clock’s hands forward approaches, scheduled for March 29th. On March 11th the Commission Productive Activities of the Chamber approved the start of a cognitive investigation “on the impact of permanent summer time on the national territory: effects and repercussions on the sectors”, presented last November on the initiative of Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima), Consumerism No profit and the deputy Andrea Barabotti (Lega). The investigation is expected to be completed by June 30th. The discussion originates from public consultation launched in 2018 by European Commissionin which 4.6 million European citizens participated: 84% expressed their opinion in favor ofabolition of the time change. In 2019 the European Parliament approved a proposal for a directive which provides for the individual states to decide freedom to choose between permanent summer or solar time; however the process then stalled due to Covid pandemic and the divergences between member countries, leaving the topic suspended. The document that launches the fact-finding investigation underlines how three studies presented at European level agree on the fact that the abolition of the time change and the application of a single system for the entire year would lead to a documented energy saving and an advantage for the European internal market and the transport.

History of daylight saving time

L’summer time in Italy was first introduced in 1916to deal with the scarcity of energy raw materials linked to the First World War. Shortly after the end of the war, in 1920, the practice was abandoned, only to be reinstated during the Second World War. The systematic use of change of time in our country it was introduced in 1966. The latest official data provided by Terna and referring to Italy attest to a lower consumption of between 2004 and 2025 electricity due to summer time over 12 billiondi in kWh which entailed, in economic terms, a savings for citizens of approx 2.3 billion euroswhile the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine highlighted how, thanks to summer time, the CO2 emissions in the atmosphere are reduced between 160,000 and 200,000 tons less per year, equal to that absorbed by planting 2 to 6 million new trees.

The fact-finding investigation and the next steps

“In light of the evidence collected, it seems appropriate to promote acognitive investigation to objectively evaluate the impacts ofpermanent daylight saving time on the national territory in the sector Italian energy and production. Such a study should involve research institutions e economic organizationsin order to provide Parliament and the Government with an updated picture on benefits and on criticality of the measure”, we read in the request approved in the Chamber. The next step in the process in the Commission will be the auditions of the subjects called to express their opinion and present studies, research and data on the effects of permanent summer time: representatives of institutions, Independent authorities, European Commission e EU Parliament, International organizations operating in the sector, trade associations, consumer associations ed industry experts coming from the academic world or research institutes.