Starting at 2 am between 26 and 27 March we will sleep an hour less but we will enjoy an extra hour of sunshine. Soon, all European countries will have to decide how to align themselves on its abolition
Summertime returns this year. On the night between Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th March, at two in the morning, the hands of the clock will be moved forward by one hour. All of this will mean an hour less sleep. But also a lot of extra light in the evening. Although the EU Parliament had approved the proposal to abolish the seasonal shift to summertime starting from 2021, nothing will change in our country at the moment. Italy had filed a formal request in Brussels to keep the dual hours. From the end of March to the end of October, summertime will therefore be in force in the forms we have known since 1966.
The summer timetable will accompany us until next October 30th, when we will turn the clock back and return to solar time. Enjoying an extra hour a day of natural light allows energy savings that are significant in our country. Terna, the operator of the national electricity grid, announced that last year, in the seven months of summertime, Italy saved a total of 400 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. Equal to the average annual consumption of about 150 thousand families. With an economic benefit of 66 million euros and with 205 thousand fewer tons of Co2 released into the atmosphere.
Europe’s position on summertime
The abolition of the obligation to summertime has been requested in Europe by some countries, in consideration of some studies that underlined the inconvenience caused by the change of hours it caused on the organism in the face of advantages that were all in all of the little weight. Northern European countries have lined up in favor of the abolition of summertime, with Finland and Poland in the front row. Their geographical position, closer to the Polar Circle, still offers long summer days and a short period of darkness. The savings on the electricity bill in these cases are negligible and does not justify the minimal effort required by the change of “time zone”.
Summertime, on the other hand, is very advantageous for Mediterranean countries, including Italy. In any case, the European Parliament has abolished the obligation to switch between summer and winter hours, leaving the individual states the right to decide which timetable to adopt. But with the recommendation to harmonize the choices as much as possible to avoid a Europe with patchy timetables. However, the question must be definitively decided by the European Council. And, internally, the states are divided.
Italy with the Conte 2 government in November 2019 filed a formal request in Brussels to keep the current situation intact. Since no changes have been made to the document, the time change twice a year remains unchanged. Italy, like all 27 European countries, will in any case soon have to decide whether to abolish summer time or solar time forever. Or leave it as it is. The double hours would therefore be maintained.
The revolution of the United States
Meanwhile, on March 15, the United States Senate approved a bill that plans to make daylight saving time permanent starting from November 2023 . Republican Senator Marco Rubio , one of the signatories of the law, commented on the approval of the Senate. “I know this is not the most important issue facing America now. But it is one of those issues in which there is a broad consensus ” . To enter into force the law will also have to be approved by the House and subsequently signed by President Joe Biden , who has not yet expressed an opinion on the matter.
The possibility of using only one timetable during the year and not changing every six months has been discussed for some time. Both summer and winter time are conventions that have been adopted over the years to meet the needs of various countries . As mentioned, for geographical reasons there are countries where summer time is more convenient . Like the states of Southern Europe , which are located about halfway between the North Pole and the Equator.
Here the length of the days does not vary very much between summer and winter and moving forward by an hour, therefore, makes the days longer, but not in such a way as to have light in the late evening. In the countries of Northern Europe , on the other hand, the summer days are in themselves very dilated, since they are closer to the North Pole. In these contexts, daylight saving time accentuates an already present phenomenon .