The European Commission has approved aid for €570 million euro programmed by Italy to incentivise ships to berth in ports to use electricity supplied by grids electrical grounds by connecting to it through the cold ironing available on the docks in order to turn off the engines and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as noise pollution.

The aid will initially take the form of a reduction up to 100% of the so-called "general system charges" which are included in the price of electricity to finance certain public policy objectives, including energy Renewable. Italy has committed to setting up a annual monitoring mechanism to verify the difference between the actual costs of purchasing electricity supplied from grids and those of self-production of electricity powered by fossil fuels on board and will adapt the level of aid.

The aid is provided for by art. 34-bis of Decree-Law no. 162 of 2019 ("Urgent provisions on the extension of legislative deadlines, organisation of public administrations, as well as technological innovation"), converted with amendments by Law No. 8 of 2020 and subsequently modified and supplemented. The article provides subsidies to reduce the cost of energy supply supported by Cold's infrastructure managers ironing.