solar time 2022 when it moves back one hour

Farewell to summer time: solar time is back. On the night of Saturday October 29 to Sunday October 30, the hands of the clock will have to move back one hour at 3 am. An appeal from organizations and associations, also signed by representatives of the institutions, asks, however, that the decision be postponed for at least a month: it would make it possible to achieve significant energy savings in times of crazy tariffs.

A change that will allow us to sleep 60 more minutes, which will last until March 2023, but which, in general, will “lose” an hour of light. With expensive energy, it has been suggested by many to extend daylight saving time by at least a month. The Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima) and the non-profit consumer society, together with representatives of institutions and civil society, launched the call in the magazine Lancet Regional Heath Europe.

An appeal accompanied by 58,000 citizens’ subscriptions collected in a single week thanks to a petition on the change.org site, aimed at extending summer time in Italy. In the appeal, Sima, Consumerism, experts, representatives of politics, institutions and civil society ask the government for a temporary suspension. That is to say that the transition to solar time is postponed at least until November 30. A measure similar to that experienced in the United States in 2007, when daylight saving time was extended by 4 weeks, resulting in documented energy savings.

Summer time and expensive bills

Extending the duration of summer time would allow energy savings of more than 500 million euros per year thanks to less use of electric lighting. But it would also allow a reduction in emissions harmful to the climate for a total of 200 thousand tons of carbon dioxide per year, with positive consequences for human health, explains Sima. “The extension of daylight saving time, at least temporarily by 30 days, would be a simple implementation provision that would guarantee certain and measurable results, in the context of onerous bills and anti-waste behaviors demanded of citizens with the decree which has just been approved. by Mite, leaving it to the next executive to verify the advisability of maintaining it permanently also at European level”, declared Alessandro Miani, president of Sima.

Mirella Miroglio, president of the Turin association Crescere Insieme, shows the bills that the anti-violence and victims of abuse center has to face. Photo Ansa / Jessica Pasqualon

Among the signatories of the appeal for the postponement of the return to solar time are the outgoing undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Andrea Costa, president of the Puglia region. Michele Emiliano, the councilor for agriculture in the Campania region and former Euro-parliamentarian Nicola Caputo. But also Luigi Gabriele (president of Consumerismo No Profit), Luca Levrini (president of the Alessandro Volta Foundation), Francesco Schittulli (president of LILT), Annarita Corrado (director and president of the town council of Maglie), and the epidemiologist Prisco Piscitelli (vice-president Sima).

The outgoing Undersecretary of Health, Andrea Costa. Photo Ansa / Angelo Carconi