• There will be a new global climate strike on 25 March.
• This strike will differ from previous ones because activists will not only put forward demands, but will seek to "create systems based on love, empathy and community care".

"We are taking to the streets again, now nearly three years after the first historic climate strike on 15 March 2019, which changed our perception," these are the words chosen by Giovanni Mori, activist and spokesperson for the Fridays for Future (Fff) movement, to announce a new global climate strike, scheduled for Friday 25 March.

A new global climate strike scheduled for 25 March

"Climate reparations from the Global North, which bears the greatest responsibility, must be guaranteed," reads the press release issued by the movement. "These reparations should not be loans, but financing for indigenous communities and marginalised ones; for the restitution of their lands, for adaptation and for loss and damage." As the hashtag chosen for this date puts it: People not profit.

"The people in power are making this crisis worse with their falsely 'green' rhetoric and the lies they perpetuate in the name of the 'ecological transition'. We need real climate action, and that is why we are taking to the streets again," said Martina Comparelli, spokesperson for the movement, from Milan.

A system based on love is needed

"We now almost take for granted that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people take to the streets to demand climate action, but that was not the case until a few months ago," Mori continued.

And this strike will differ from previous ones: activists will not only put forward demands, but will seek to "create systems based on love, empathy and community care that put the welfare of people before money," Fff explains in the press release.

"We have no time to be afraid, but we need to react, to stop the destruction of our communities devastated by the current extractivist system and to work at the same time — fear cannot be felt when you have a gun to your head forcing you to leave your territory," said activist Sofia Gutierrez, from Colombia.

"We live in a system where wealthy nations are responsible for 92 per cent of global emissions and the richest 1 per cent of the population is responsible for twice the emissions generated by the poorest 50 per cent," reads the strike's official page.

More than three years since the first global climate strike

For one in two young Europeans, the battle for the future is fought exclusively on tackling climate change. Moreover, nine out of ten people aged between 15 and 24 consider it will be decisive for their health and wellbeing. These are the findings that emerge from the special Eurobarometer 517 survey "The future of Europe", jointly commissioned by the European Parliament and Commission.

And young people have always been the standard-bearers of this fight. During Cop26, the United Nations climate conference, 100,000 people took to the streets of Glasgow, where the negotiations were taking place, accompanied by hundreds of thousands of others around the world. In Milan alone, 50,000 students joined the climate strike on 1 October 2021, alongside activist Greta Thunberg, who was in the city to take part in Youth 4 climate, the youth Cop, and the pre-Cop26. And in that case too, hundreds of thousands joined them across the rest of the world.

Prior to that, even in the midst of the pandemic, activists always found a way to make their voices heard. As on the occasion of the fifth global strike in April 2020, when, due to the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, they had decided to strike online.

New content in the latest episode of Radio for future

The latest episode of Radio for future, the programme hosted by Giovanni Mori and broadcast on LifeGate Radio, also covers the new strike.

"We are still far too dependent on fossil fuels such as gas, which is sending everyone's bills through the roof, whereas if we had far more renewables we would pay much less," Mori explains. "And in the meantime our Government keeps insisting, in a criminal fashion, on the wrong path — the one mapped out by the fossil fuel and gas lobbies, those who first denied the climate crisis and are now engaging in unparalleled greewashing, calling themselves green while increasing oil and gas extraction."

The activist then highlights how Italy and Western countries are not doing their part at a global level to support the transition of the countries hardest hit by the climate crisis. "Once again, all over the world, we will be millions telling those responsible, who prefer to turn a blind eye for the interests of a very few," he concludes. The date to mark is 25 March.