From energy excellence to net zero
Decarbonizing the Italian paper industry
As industries across Europe navigate the increasingly complex path to net zero, Italy’s Pulp & Paper sector faces a unique set of challenges. A mix of structural, economic, and policy-driven pressures creates a highly challenging landscape, where the transition to decarbonization is both essential and exceptionally demanding.
Earlier this year, ASSOCARTA, Italy’s Pulp & Paper manufacturers’ association, partnered with AFRY to develop a comprehensive decarbonization roadmap tailored to its members. The goal was clear: help the sector to develop a viable path toward zero emissions while remaining competitive on both a European and global market.
A peculiar context and a steep change ahead
The ecological transition to low-carbon technologies is rapidly transforming both energy and production systems. While the path towards renewable energy is well-defined and largely driven by strong incentives, the latter is still mostly left to various industrial sectors’ own initiatives, which often appear uncoordinated and too frequently guided by individual or loosely associative efforts.
European Union initiatives have increasingly emphasized industrial competitiveness in the context of decarbonization (Net-Zero Industry Act, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and the Clean Industrial Deal), yet there remains a need for clear plans and tools that account for the complexity and diversity of the specific energy requirements across different industries.
The Italian paper industry, a cornerstone of the national manufacturing sector and the second-largest paper producer in Europe, is facing a profound transformation. The Italian sector has demonstrated its ability to embrace transition, having obtained, for example, a significant reduction of energy intensity of products through high-efficiency gas cogeneration.
As the European Green Deal intensifies its demands, the paper industry is preparing for an even steeper change. By 2030, the sector is expected to cut emissions by 70%, a trajectory that will eventually lead to full carbon neutrality by 2050. This is no small feat.
Understanding the challenge
What does it actually mean to decarbonize such an energy-intensive industry? The answer lies in a three-pronged strategy: improving process efficiency, decarbonizing fuels, and embracing sustainable electrification. These form the core of the industry's transition. From optimizing turbo compressors and machinery to integrating biomass heating systems and electric dryers, companies are already adopting a mosaic of technologies. Around 20% of paper mills, for example, have installed photovoltaic systems for self-consumption, while some companies are now beginning to use waste as a source of energy, for example, with biomethane or syngas systems.
Despite these encouraging steps, the road ahead is far from straightforward. On the one hand, regulatory and market frameworks remain inadequate. The Italian industry faces high electricity costs, consistently above the EU average, which undermines its competitiveness—especially when compared to countries like Germany and Spain.
On the other hand, the technological challenges are equally daunting. Electrification, while a key pillar of long-term decarbonization, currently suffers from limited effectiveness due to insufficient infrastructure readiness, especially for smaller production sites. Meanwhile, alternative fuels such as green hydrogen and biomethane remain either too costly or too scarce to deploy at scale.
Even carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, though promising, require high upfront investment that many companies struggle to justify in the absence of stronger incentives. Amid these hurdles, the Italian paper industry must navigate a complex set of trade-offs between economic viability, environmental urgency, and technological maturity. Thus, a tailored, sector-specific roadmap becomes indispensable. One-size-fits-all policies are unlikely to succeed in a landscape as fragmented and diversified as this. Instead, decarbonization strategies must be built around the real-world conditions of individual mills, regional supply chains, and existing energy solutions and infrastructures.
Designing an effective way forward
The way forward rests on three foundational pillars:
1. Enhancing local synergies will be key to maximizing the use of available resources such as biomass and syngas.
Local integration throughout the supply chain, energy production, waste management, and industrial demand can dramatically increase efficiency and reduce dependency on external energy sources.
2. There is an urgent need to decarbonize cogeneration, the very system that has so far underpinned the industry's energy performance.
In the short to medium term, this can be achieved through the use of biomethane and carbon capture technologies, both of which are already technically viable and compatible with existing infrastructure. This path offers a pragmatic bridge between the present reliance on gas and the future promise of fully renewable systems.
However, for this shift to be effective, Italy must invest not only in new technologies but also in adapting its grid infrastructure to support industrial demands. Additionally, emerging solutions—such as small modular nuclear reactors—should not be excluded from consideration, especially as they may provide a stable and low-carbon energy source that complements intermittent renewables.
3. Electrification must remain central to the long-term decarbonization agenda.
Ultimately, the decarbonization of the Italian paper sector is both a challenge and an opportunity. It demands coordinated action from industry, government, and the broader energy ecosystem. When approached strategically—with a focus on technological effectiveness, economic rationality, and regional adaptability—it may position Italy as a leader in sustainable industrial innovation.
“AFRY’s deep expertise across both the energy and paper sectors was key to developing a roadmap that is not only technically sound but also forward-looking and practical. Their multidisciplinary approach, combined with simple and effective communication, served two essential purposes: providing our member companies with concrete guidance for navigating the decarbonization journey, and helping raise awareness among policymakers and other stakeholders about the specific challenges our industry faces,” says the ASSOCARTA president, Lorenzo Poli.
Authored by Eduardo de Almeida and Riccardo Siliprandi, AFRY Management Consulting.
This article is part of our AFRY Insights publication series, where experts from AFRY Management Consulting share their insights into emerging global trends across the energy and bioindustry sectors, as well as sustainability transformation.
