(Finance) – “La railway mobility, its development and growth can represent a key factor for achieving the challenging objectives of the European Green Deal in terms of sustainability”. This was reiterated byCEO of the FS Group Stefano Donnarumma intervened remotely at 20th Italy-Spain Dialogue Forum held in Barcelona.
As part of the Panel “Accompanying the transition: the future of the European Green Deal“, Donnarumma, who is also President of the European Region UIC (Union internationale des chemins de fer) emphasized the importance of dialogue and collaboration between the various European operators, “to reach the goals together community objectives which include a 55% reduction in CO2 by 2030“. An ambitious target but which, according to Donnarumma, can also be achieved by promoting “an effective railway connection between the various European capitals with high-speed lines that allow important results to be achieved also from an environmental point of view”.
“As Ferrovie dello Stato – Donnarumma argued in his speech – we are fully committed to the creation of works that will change the country’s mobility. We are, in fact, bringing thehigh-speed rail in areas of the country where it is absent (think of Naples-Bari or Salerno – Reggio Calabria) and we are also doing it thanks to the PNRR which has awarded us around 25 billion. Our commitment, however, will continue beyond 2026 with investments of over 100 billion in the next 5 years for the country’s infrastructure. This, together with investments in the modernization of trains – added the FS CEO – represents support for achieving the European objectives of reducing CO2 emissions from transport by 90% by 2050″. In this sense, Stefano Donnarumma noted , “the focus we have placed on the intermodality of transport and on the rail-road dialogue and ports in the field of goods transport also plays a central role”.
Donnarumma, in his speech then made an appointment to 12 December, the date on which the Strategic Plan of the FS Group will be presented at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. “An opportunity to explain our commitment to Italy and beyond, given the international presence of the FS Group which for example in Spain – underlined Donnarumma – has been present with the iryo brand for two years with important and satisfactory results”.
Along the road to changing mobility, according to Donnarumma, it is also important to reflect “on the possibility of using other sources of financing, which are not just public ones. An evaluation that must also be international, as happened in other sectors such as of electricity networks. Obviously – the CEO of FS specified – this change must be accompanied by an adequate regulatory framework”.