Italy’s top story on Wednesday:

Alarm as Fentanyl found in Italy

Italy’s National Rapid Warning System for Drugs (NEWS-D) has raised the alarm after the synthetic opioid Fentanyl was found in a drug seizure in Perugia.

Police discovered that the drug had been used as a cutting substance in a dose of heroin seized several weeks ago, according to news reports. It is the first time authorities have confirmed the presence of Fentanyl in Italy.

Up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, Fentanyl has been linked to a rising number of fatal and non-fatal overdoses in the US in recent years.

NEWS-D is a tool created by Italy’s Department for Anti-Drug Policies to warn health and law enforcement agencies of potential threats; the alert was issued “so the territorial monitoring network is strengthened and attention is increased in all potentially exposed sectors,” the department said in a note.

Italy’s GDP rose in first quarter of 2024

Italy’s GDP grew by 0.3 percent in the first three months of 2024, according to a preliminary estimate released by the country’s National Statistics Institute (ISTAT) on Tuesday.

The country’s GDP was up 0.6 percent on a year-on-year basis from the first quarter of 2024, the institute said.

The growth was attributed to an increase in value across Italy’s agriculture, forestry and fishing, industry and services sectors.

The country’s carry-over growth for 2024 is 0.5 percent, ISTAT said, after the economy grew by 0.2 percent in the final quarter of 2023.

G7 agrees to phase out coal-fired plants by mid-2030s

The G7 group of leaders agreed to phase out most coal-fired power plants over the next decade at the 2024 environment, energy and climate summit in Turin on Tuesday.

The G7, which consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, committed in its final statement to phasing out “existing unabated coal power generation in our energy systems during the first half of 2030s”.

However the agreement leaves some room for manoeuvre, saying states may follow “a timeline consistent with keeping a limit of 1.5-degrees-Celsius temperature rise within reach, in line with countries’ net zero pathways” according to news agency AFP.

The pact also approves the continued use of “abated” coal power, i.e. that in which emissions are captured or limited by technology – which has been slammed by critics as an unproven loophole.

Andreas Sieber from the environmental campaign group 350.org said the agreement was “important yet insufficient progress”, while the Climate Analytics policy institute responded that “2035 is too late”, per AFP reports.