Greenpeace activists scale Rome's Gazometro with a 200 square-metre banner on gas bills

The action on the Gazometro

Activists from eight European countries climbed the Gazometro in Rome, a gas infrastructure no longer in use and now owned by the oil and gas company Eni, and hung a 200-square-metre banner reading "Meloni, siamo alla canna del gas" beside a photo of the premier. Greenpeace Italia described the protest as peaceful and said Italian families will keep paying high bills for as long as the country relies on gas to produce electricity and heat homes. The action was reported on 12 November 2026, a few days after the government approved the Decreto Bollette. The activists also displayed the message "Stop Fossil Gas", asking the Meloni government and European governments to abandon fossil gas by 2035.

Gas dependence and electricity bills

On the same day, Greenpeace Italia published a briefing titled "La trappola del gas", which states that about 46% of national electricity is produced by burning gas. The group argues that this makes Italy the country with the highest electricity bills in Europe and leaves it exposed to market swings, geopolitical tensions and dependence on producer countries such as the United States. The protest was framed as a response to rising energy costs, which the group links directly to gas dependence. An earlier Greenpeace calculation estimated that if the government met the renewable installation targets set in the Piano Nazionale Integrato per l'Energia e il Clima, the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan, each Italian family could save about 190 euros a year on its bills.

Calls to the government

Simona Abbate, of the climate and energy campaign at Greenpeace Italia, said that energy security and lower bills depend on renewables.

“We can have energy security and lower bills only by investing in renewable sources.”

The group asks Rome to set a phase-out of fossil gas by 2035, to decouple the price of electricity from the price of gas, and to back households struggling with rising energy costs. It also wants a levy on the large profits of fossil fuel companies to pay for the transition. Abbate accused the government of looking abroad for fossil fuels rather than relying on the sun and wind, which the country has in abundance. The demands are addressed to the Italian government and to European governments alike.

“By doing so it exposes our country to continual crises and puts the cost of gas dependence on family budgets already strained by inflation.”

The statement was issued through Greenpeace Italia and carried in the same campaign as the banner and the briefing.