On 30 June 2026, the third annual progress report on the state of implementation of the Mattei Plan, prepared by a dedicated Task Force, was submitted to the Italian Parliament. The publication of the report provides an opportunity to take stock of the plan’s progress, considering not only its developments but also the broader changes and shifts in the geopolitical landscape within which it must operate and to which it must respond. This was the perspective adopted during the event ‘Energy security, peace and development: the strategic potential of the Mattei Plan,’ organised by ECCO in the Sala del Refettorio in the Chamber of Deputies on 24 June.

From the Mattei Plan to Italian foreign policy: Italy as a clean energy hub

Energy remains one of the central pillars of the Mattei Plan. In this context, the report highlights how the plan aims to harness the African continent’s energy resources in a way that generates benefits for local economies and communities. The proposed approach seeks to support development pathways compatible with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, while also expanding access to reliable and affordable energy in partner countries, on a continent where around 660 million people still lack access to electricity.

Renewable energy and clean technologies are therefore identified as strategic levers to promote low-emission industrialisation and foster more inclusive and resilient economic development. The projects supported by the plan reflect this approach, focusing on the development of renewable energy systems and the strengthening of local capacities, including through capacity-building initiatives.

However, a crucial question remains. If the Mattei Plan genuinely aims to represent a paradigm shift in relations between Italy and Africa – particularly in a historically central sector such as energy – support for renewable energy and other sustainable solutions, such as storage, interconnectors and electricity grids, cannot remain confined to projects promoted under the plan alone. This approach must instead be adopted consistently across the entire Italian System (Sistema Italia), aligning cooperation instruments, economic diplomacy and energy policy. A comprehensive and coherent strategy would strengthen Italy’s credibility as an actor capable of building partnerships with African countries based on sustainable development, resilience and shared value creation.

It is also from this perspective that Italy’s potential role as an ‘energy hub’ should be understood. This role cannot be limited to the traditional function of a corridor for the import and transit of energy towards Europe – even if that energy is renewable – but should evolve towards that of a clean energy hub. Such a model would combine Italian and European strategic interests with support for the development of local energy supply chains, starting from the expansion of renewable energy and green industrialisation pathways that can lay the foundations of shared and mutually beneficial value chains.

This approach would help avoid a scenario in which the transition reproduces extractive dynamics, based solely on the export of energy or raw materials – even when integrated into ‘green’ supply chains – without genuinely strengthening local productive and industrial capacities.

The Mattei Plan: between an ecosystem approach and internationalisation

Italy’s positioning in this regard can build on the evolution of the Mattei Plan, both as a system-wide initiative and towards its progressive internationalisation.

While one of the criticisms levelled at the two previous reports concerned their predominantly project-based approach, the 2026 report highlights a positive development: the Mattei Plan is increasingly mobilising Italy’s institutional architecture and progressively broadening the involvement of bodies with different roles and interests connected to the plan and its projects. As a plan of national interest, its objective is not simply to finance individual projects, but to build a stable ecosystem of collaboration between institutions, businesses, local authorities and third-sector organisations, capable of coordinating expertise, resources and tools to translate the plan’s objectives into concrete action.

Furthermore, the progress report highlights developments in terms of the Mattei Plan’s internationalisation, including the related opportunities for the Italian System. Synergies with European and multilateral initiatives help scale up resources, impact and credibility, while strengthening Italy’s political weight as akey actor in relations with the African continent. At European level, the synergy between the plan and the T-MED initiative, recently launched by the European Commission within the framework of the Pact for the Mediterranean, could provide an additional framework for affirming Italy’s potential as a clean energy hub in the region, and, more broadly, across the African continent.

Towards greater transparency in the plan’s financing

Among the points raised by civil society regarding the previous annual reports, particular attention has been paid to the transparency of information available on the plan, particularly on a financial level. In this respect, the 2026 report represents a step forward, providing more detailed information both on the financial resources allocated to the plan and on the contribution of the Italian Climate Fund to individual projects. This is a positive development, as it helps clarify how public resources are being allocated and what the priorities for cooperation and investment are.

However, further improvements are still needed  in view of the launch of a dedicated website on the Mattei Plan. To ensure a genuinely comprehensive assessment of the plan’s implementation, the same level of detail currently provided for the Italian Climate Fund should be extended to all sources of financing involved, particularly public funds. More specifically, the report should provide greater clarity on how SACE’s guarantees have been used (amounting to approximately €4 billion across 76 projects), which projects benefit from co-financing by the main international financial institutions – including the World Bank and the African Development Bank – and how the TERRA and RISE guarantee instruments made available by the European Commission are being allocated.

Integrated reporting on the various sources of funding would not only make it possible to reconstruct the actual volume of resources mobilised by the plan, but also to assess the specific contribution of each financial instrument, verifying its consistency with the strategic objectives and its actual capacity to generate impact in partner countries. As already highlighted in previous comments, greater transparency regarding financial resources should be accompanied by clearer reporting on the project selection process and the criteria guiding decisions. Making evaluation methods, priorities and the rationale behind funding decisions publicly available would help strengthen the credibility of the Mattei Plan and ensure that resource allocation responds to clearly defined strategic objectives.

Climate in the Mattei Plan

A positive element of the report is the greater transparency regarding the climate rationale of the projects included in the plan. In particular, for projects funded through the Italian Climate Fund and for those funded under the Mattei Plan and Rome Process Financing Facility, the report provides a classification according to the Rio Markers. This is the internationally used methodological framework for assessing the extent to which a project contributes to climate change mitigation (through the reduction or absorption of greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation (through strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change impacts).

Publishing these assessments represents an important step forward, as it allows for a better understanding of the climate value of investments and enables results to be compared with the standards used in international cooperation. Furthermore, this development shows that climate impact is becoming central to projects across the different pillars of the Mattei Plan, marking progress in integrating the climate dimension as a strategic component of the plan.

However, to ensure a consistent assessment of the Mattei Plan’s contribution to climate action, all interventions funded through other sources should follow selection methods that guarantee alignment with climate objectives. The introduction of a uniform disclosure system would enable a comparative analysis of the entire project portfolio and assess its overall contribution to the plan’s objectives and climate targets, while also improving transparency, comparability and accountability.

In this regard, it would also be advisable to publish periodic impact assessments based on measurable indicators, allowing progress and results to be verified. More broadly, a transparent monitoring and evaluation system would reduce the risk of decisions being influenced by considerations that are not fully aligned with the public interest, while instead promoting a more inclusive, accountable and results-oriented decision-making process.

The Mattei Plan and the evolution of international cooperation

The Mattei Plan is set within a global context in which official development assistance (ODA) is declining sharply, while international cooperation is increasingly driven by investment and private-sector involvement, following a more business-oriented approach. This is the ‘trade over aid’ model, championed by Trump’s United States, according to which market forces should define the scope of cooperation between states. How does the Mattei Plan fit into these dynamics?

Like the Global Gateway, the plan aims to increasingly involve the private sector in engagement with African partners, focusing on shared development pathways. The objective is therefore not simply to identify and exploit opportunities for the Italian private sector in Africa, but to do so in a way that creates a relationship of positive interdependence, capable of generating mutual added value. In other words, the involvement of the private sector in a plan also supported by public resources – as in the case of SACE guarantees – cannot be reduced to an expansion of market opportunities for businesses. Instead, it must generate broader added value, placing at the centre of cooperation criteria and impact assessments that go beyond purely economic considerations, thereby promoting the interests of all parties involved. It is in this direction that the plan can achieve its objectives and establish itself as an innovative and distinctive approach.

At the same time, it is important not to overlook sectors that are less ‘bankable’ or ‘profitable,’ such as climate change adaptation or health, which may struggle to attract investment but where action is essential for planning more sustainable development pathways on a broader scale. The fact that, alongside its focus on investment and dedicated instruments, the plan also provides grant resources and includes initiatives such as the introduction of debt suspension clauses for African countries affected by natural disasters – announced by Meloni during the second Italy-Africa summit in Addis Ababa – is a positive development. Moreover, as noted above, a significant share of the plan’s funding comes from the resources of the Italian Climate Fund, which by mandate contributes to achieving the objectives established by international agreements on climate and environmental protection.

Mobilising the Italian Climate Fund: where do we stand?

However, the mobilisation of funds under the Italian Climate Fund is proceeding more slowly than expected. Although the past year has seen a significant acceleration in allocations, the report notes that, to date, the Technical Committee has approved approximately €1.2 billion (of which €936.7 million was approved in the year covered by the report alone). Approximately €370 million more from the fund had been approved prior to the establishment of the Technical Committee.

In any case, these amounts remain limited, given that, under the original plan, the fund was expected to allocate 4.2 billion by 2026, 70% of which under the Mattei Plan. In this context, as analysed in a recent ECCO and ODI policy briefing, it is necessary to accelerate the processes for identifying and approving Italian Climate Fund projects to ensure their timely and effective implementation. This would also strengthen the strategic scope of the Mattei Plan.

Progress and room for improvement: the Mattei Plan put to the geopolitical test

Overall, the 2026 progress report represents a step forward in the implementation of the Mattei Plan. Positive elements include greater transparency regarding the resources mobilised, more explicit attention to the climate dimension (although limited to some projects), the gradual involvement of the Italian System, and continued openness to European and multilateral synergies capable of strengthening the plan’s international credibility and impact.

At the same time, room for improvement remains, including more comprehensive and comparable reporting across all funding sources, clearer criteria for project selection and evaluation, and faster mobilisation of resources under the Italian Climate Fund. These are all important factors in ensuring that the Mattei Plan can translate its ambitions into a genuinely innovative partnership, capable of generating shared value and balanced relations between Italy, Europe and African countries.

This does not take place in a vacuum, but rather within a constantly evolving global geopolitical context. Recent months have highlighted this reality through the economic and energy consequences triggered by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, following the outbreak of the war in Iran. The latest in a series of such events, the Hormuz crisis has once again highlighted the need to structurally reduce the demand for fossil fuels, both as a source of resilience against geopolitical shocks and as a foundation for energy security, given the vulnerability of energy and economic systems that remain heavily dependent on hydrocarbons.

This strategic direction also points to the need to progressively reassess Italy and Europe’s bilateral and multilateral relations in light of the requirements and objectives of the transition. From the perspective of relations between Italy and African countries, this means redefining the energy partnership with the African continent as a whole – not only within the framework of the Mattei Plan, but also more broadly at the level of Italy-Africa bilateral cooperation. In this context, economic cooperation – together with the relevant political incentives – will need to be progressively recalibrated around new strategic sectors, including renewable energy, clean technologies and critical minerals. Despite the growing role of the latter in global geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics, as well as to foster European competitiveness, this dimension remains largely absent from Italy’s strategy towards Africa, as highlighted by the report. There is therefore scope to develop cooperation between the parties in this sector, in line with the objectives and principles of the Mattei Plan.

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