Italy’s top story on Wednesday:

Italy’s cabinet on Monday approved the appointment of a special commissioner to combat the rising number of blue crabs invading its seas, Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.

The blue crab, native to the North American Atlantic coast, has proliferated throughout the Mediterranean Sea in recent years as climate change has warmed its waters, threatening native populations like clams and mussels on Italy’s northeastern coast.

In September, the government announced it would allocate €2.9 million to addressing the problem, including by offering incentives to local fishermen to catch and dispose of the crabs.

The commissioner, who has yet to be appointed, will remain in post until at least December 2026, and will be tasked with coming up with strategies to contain the invasive species.

19 percent of Italians at risk of poverty

Some 22.8 percent of Italians were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2023, according to data released by Italy’s national statistics office (ISTAT) on Tuesday.

This represents a decline on 2022 numbers, when 24.4 percent of the population was at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

18.9 percent of Italians were at risk of poverty in 2023 compared to 20.1 percent the previous year, while the share of the population in conditions of “severe material and social deprivation” rose slightly over the same period, from 4.5 percent to 4.7 percent.

In 2022 (the most recent year for which data is available), the total income of the country’s wealthiest households was 5.3 times that of the poorest households, down from 5.6 in 2021.

Italy bans solar panels on agricultural land

The government on Monday moved to ban the installation of ground-based solar panels on agricultural land, days after committing to triple the country’s renewable energy capacity by 2030, news agency AFP reported.

The ban covers photovoltaic systems placed on the ground in areas classified as agricultural, but does not refer to agrivoltaic projects, where solar panels are installed above fields of crops, Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said at a press conference following the cabinet meeting.

Coordinamento Free, an umbrella group for renewable energy businesses and environmental associations, warned that the ban would block many solar projects and that “as a result, Italy will fail to meet the 2030 decarbonisation targets.”

At a summit last week, Italy signed an agreement with other G7 nations to triple renewables by 2030. The ban, still in the draft law phase, must be approved by parliament and could still be modified.

Italy’s PM in Libya for talks

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni began a visit Libya on Tuesday, scheduling meetings with leaders from rival administrations in the conflict-torn country with a view to signing cooperation agreements, AFP reported.

In her second visit since taking office in October 2022, when she signed a major gas deal with the north African country, Meloni met the head of the Tripoli-based government, Abdelhamid Dbeibah, Libyan officials said.

An Italian government spokesperson told AFP the premier planned to sign “declarations of intent” on cooperation in health, education and research as well as youth and sports as part of the prime minister’s ‘Mattei Plan’, a blueprint of energy cooperation deals with African nations which critics say favours European interests.

After Tripoli, Meloni was set to head to Benghazi to meet General Khalifa Haftar, strongman of the eastern-based administration, “in accordance with Italy’s consolidated commitment to be present throughout Libya and to work with all Libyan actors”, the Italian government said.