MILAN, SEPTEMBER 30 – “This generation, your generation, has the most to lose from climate change. And you know extremely well the dramatic consequences of global inequalities on poverty, malnutrition, access to health. You are right to demand accountability and change. The ecological transition is not a choice – it is a necessity. We only have two options ahead of us. Either we face the costs of the transition now. Or we act later – and pay the much higher price of a climate disaster”: the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi spoke at the Youth4Climate conference, that closes down today -with a suspension due to a participant who tested positive for COVID-19- after passionate debates and proposals coming from young people from all over the world.
Yesterday evening the conference had approved a final document containing key proposal that were illustrated today to the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella and to PM Draghi alongside about 40 ministers for the Environment who came to Milan for the pre-COP, including the US special envoy John Kerry. The “key messages”, articulated on four fundamental topics, will be the basis of a more complex document to be delivered to the Glasgow COP26. ”We hope that the assembly, promoted by Italy to open an intergenerational debate on climate, becomes a stable event”, said the Minister for the Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani during the press conference that signed the end of the three-day summit of 400 “under 30”.
Reduce inequalities, involve young people in decision-making processes, favor programs of public-private assistance are some of the proposals illustrated by the four youth co-chairs, Nisreen Elsaim (Sudan), Ernest Gibson (Fiji), Nathan Metenier (France), and Sophia Kianni (USA) to world leaders, including Draghi, Mattarella, British PM Boris Johnson, COP26 President Alok Sharma.
Italy’s commitment, underlined by Cingolani, is to double assistance to disadvantaged countries up to a billion euros, because the climate issue is also a geopolitical one and, if huge social differences between the north and south of the world are not overcome, global warming will not be addressed. Alongside the minister during the press conference there was Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN envoy for Youth, who came to Milan for the meeting.
In his final remarks, Draghi did not avoid the issue, highlighted by the media, that Greta Thunberg raised in her speech on Tuesday: “The ‘blah blah blah’ sometimes is just a way to conceal ourselves and our inability to pursue this with action – and consistent action”, the PM replied to the Swedish teenager who in 2018, at age 15, sparked the youth movement spending her school days outside the Swedish Parliament to call for stronger action on climate change holding up a sign reading Skolstrejk för klimatet (School strike for climate): “But to some extent, when you have these transformational changes, it’s actually useful to convince people that action is needed; to convince people that the numbers used here – 1.5 °C, net zero emissions and so on – are not something that has been created by some artefact. These are science numbers and people need to be convinced. Maybe I’m too optimistic – and I stand to be corrected by the real guys here – but my sense is that the leaders are all absolutely convinced of the need to act, and the need to act fast”.
To the 400 young people who came to Milan from all over the world, Draghi told that, among the goal of the G20 Leaders Rome Summit at the end of October, is a commitment about the need to keep 1.5°C within reach: “And we want to develop, we must develop, long-term strategies that are consistent with 1.5°C”.
The Prime Minister then lingered on the consequences of the current global threats: “The pandemic and climate change have contributed to push nearly 100 million people into extreme poverty, bringing the total to 730 million people in extreme poverty. The climate, health and food crises are deeply intertwined. We must act faster – much faster – and more effectively to tackle all of them”.
“Italy – added Draghi – has earmarked 40% of the funds in its Recovery Plan to the ecological transition. We aim to increase the share of renewable sources in our energy mix, make mobility more sustainable, improve the energy efficiency of our buildings, and safeguard biodiversity”.
Previously the PM had met with Thunberg and two other young climate change activist, Vanessa Nakate and Martina Comparelli, in the Milan Prefettura Palace. The meeting that “went extremely well”, according to what Draghi said entering in the MiCo for the Pre-COP26.
Also Pope Francis, who made the safeguard of the environment one of the leading pillars of his pontificate, gave his own message of encouragement to Youth4Climate: “They say you are the future, but in this you are the present, you are the people building today, in the present, the future. I accompany your journey and I encourage you to follow your work for the benefit of all humankind”. (@giorgiodelgallo)
