THE APPEAL
HOW IT STARTED
The Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 by 197 countries at COP21, established a global framework for action to address and manage climate change. On that occasion, governments made a commitment to all humanity: to keep the temperature increase to within 1.5°C this century, indicating this as the threshold not to be exceeded to prevent climate change from becoming catastrophic for the human species. The Agreement required the signatory countries to make specific commitments to achieve the goal: emissions reduction; conversion of production activities and the energy supply chain; decarbonization of the economy by 2030 to move beyond the extractive model; public financial and technological support for countries in the Global South; and support for the Green Fund to ensure the possibility of a fair and equitable conversion. Everyone in the same boat, but with different responsibilities and weights.
Humanity, concerned about growing poverty, the consequences of the ecological crisis, and the piecemeal global war, has been told that the gravest danger is climate change, labeled a true existential threat. The priority, therefore, was to address global warming by making effective political choices to adapt our lives and economies, mitigating its effects through consistent investments and choices.
Ten years later, just months before COP30, the United Nations is denouncing that the Earth’s temperature is already rising by 1.7°C, and the targets have not been met. Atmospheric emissions have even increased, reaching the astronomical figure of 41.6 billion gigatons in 2024 (it was supposed to stop at 35), while the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen to 429.6 parts per million (the maximum threshold for our health is 350 ppm). Energy consumption is growing, as are the raw materials extracted from the Earth. Overshoot Day, the day on which we run out of the resources freely provided by our ecosystems and our Common Home, is coming earlier and earlier. In 2015, it was August 13th, while this year it was July 24th. And in some countries, resources are running out even earlier: Italy already ran out on May 6th. Last year, it was May 19th. Our country’s ecological degradation is occurring at an unprecedented rate, confirming the absence of policies aimed at protecting our lands, our biodiversity, and our health.
Less than three months before the next World Climate Conference, as humanity faces the most serious environmental and social crisis in its history and climate breakdown threatens the safety of all, the Meloni government is canceling funding for ecological conversion, denying the climate crisis, cutting resources for environmental cleanups and social security, repressing environmental activists who speak the truth and protest, failing to listen to the many communities affected by environmental injustice and misguided projects, donating public funds to fossil fuel and weapons lobbies, undermining the European Green Deal, and bowing to the interests of large US corporations by accepting Trump’s blackmail and tariff policies. With its decisions, the Meloni government demonstrates more interest in betting on war and the end of multilateralism than in addressing the need to address real problems to improve our lives today.
Despite the commitments made after the pandemic to rethink our production and healthcare model, investing in the Green New Deal to promote environmental and social sustainability, in March the European Parliament approved ReArm Europe by a large majority. The EU has decided to spend €800 billion on weapons over four years, introducing the possibility of issuing European bonds to finance military investments and use unused “coronabonds.”
From the green revolution to the black abyss! Since June, NATO has been asking allied states to increase arms spending from 2% to 5% of national GDP. The Meloni government, betraying the obligations set forth in the principles of our Constitution, in order to please the interests of war and economic growth, is preparing to deprive Italy of an additional €70 billion per year for 10 years from spending on education, social policies, employment, healthcare, environmental cleanups, and much more. This is in a country that is among the most impoverished in Europe and ranks fifth in terms of accelerating environmental and ecological degradation.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
WHAT WE NEED
In the silence of politics, faced with the absence of adequate and coherent proposals from those who define themselves as alternatives to government policies, only citizen participation in political decisions can change things. In a wounded and low-intensity democracy like ours, grassroots action is needed, bringing together communities affected by worsening ecological and social conditions, environmental and social justice movements, workers, and local institutions. This will achieve the critical mass needed to have an impact and bring to public attention proposals and alternatives for a better life. Let’s raise our voices together and propose effective proposals to force the Italian government to respect international agreements and guarantee social and environmental security in the country. We cannot accept that, instead of using public resources to defend life, they are wasted on weapons and wars, maintaining intact the very system that led to the crisis. We must prevent this devastation because the present and the right to a future for all are at stake.
Addressing these issues and shifting political priorities is possible through initiatives, mobilizations, and proposals that mobilize participation, restoring voice and representation to the commitment of citizens and movements for environmental and social justice. For this reason, local committees, social organizations, unions, and associations will meet in Rome to discuss them together and develop a shared proposal.
In Italy, if we want to achieve the goals set by science and UN agencies for 2030 and 2050, we need to invest €1 trillion over 10 years in the ecological conversion of production activities and the energy supply chain. This conversion must be planned (publicly), inclusive (with workers), fair (the wealthy must pay for it through general taxation), participatory (communities, movements, and local knowledge must be involved), and decentralized.
We need climate change adaptation and mitigation policies that meet our needs for health, decent and fair work, and participation. Public investments in this direction include environmental cleanups, ecological citizenship work, and the socialization of strategic infrastructures between countries and municipalities, as well as socio-ecological reproduction activities.