CIP Remains Eager to Invest in Italian Offshore Wind Maritime Activity Reports, Inc. May 21, 2026 © Adobe Stock/zozulinskyi Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a Danish firm eager to invest in Italian  offshore  wind farms, is getting impatient. Two years after the country's 2024 law offered incentives to would-be developers to provide  offshore  wind capacity, the government has yet to announce a calendar for auctions it said it would hold by 2028. The inertia reflects a reluctance to embrace the transition from fossil fuels as a complex and polarised international debate pits clean  energy  campaigners against some governments and companies. U.S. President Donald Trump has led the support for continued use of oil and gas. For Italian families and firms, the pain is acute from a surge in fossil fuel prices since U.S.-Israeli airstrikes started the Iran war at the end of February. They are particularly exposed because of the extent to which Italy relies on imported natural gas. Michele Schiavone, Italian country manager for Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners'  offshore  delivery arm, said Rome's foot-dragging on  offshore  wind meant it could miss out on a sector fundamental to its future  energy  security. "The (government's) silence is not just preventing us going forwards, it is taking us backwards," he said. "It's an own-goal that is too bad to be true." ITALY'S GAS RELIANCE DRIVES UP ELECTRICITY COSTS Gas, which is more expensive than renewables, accounts for almost half of Italy's electricity production, the highest proportion in the European Union, according to 2025 data by global  energy  think tanks Ember and the  Energy  Institute. That compares with around a fifth in Spain, 17% in Germany and 3% in France's nuclear-dominated system. As the bloc's largest importer of liquefied natural gas through the Gulf, where Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused unprec