We are in a state of climate and environmental emergency; this time it is the Municipality of Bergamo making the declaration, with a motion approved yesterday evening by the Municipal Council with 21 votes in favour and 8 abstentions.

Bergamo joins Acri – the first municipality in Italy to have declared a climate emergency –, Milan, Naples, Maglie, Lucca, Torchiarolo, Siracusa and Turin. We are only at the beginning, a small drop in the ocean, given that Italian municipalities number 7,914 and even the Italian government has not approved a state of climate emergency on the occasion of World Environment Day.

"Cities are a very significant part of the climate change question; it is estimated that by 2050 two thirds of the world's population will be living in urban areas. It is therefore clear how much cities weigh at a global level and what their role is in policies to combat the climate crisis," commented Stefano Zenoni, Environment Councillor for the Municipality of Bergamo.

Bergamo's commitment

With last night's decision, the Mayor of Bergamo, Giorgio Gori, declared a climate and environmental emergency, and together with him the council commits to joining the "Green City climate adaptation Declaration", ahead of the 2nd National Conference of green cities to be held in Milan on 16 July.

The city will establish an environmental observatory, in collaboration with the environmental and sector associations present in Bergamo, and with the support of experts and technical specialists, so that policies and operational actions may be assessed that move in the direction of the objectives set out by the Clean energy package of the European Commission, to be implemented within the administrative mandate in line with the actions an administration is able to carry out.

"Cities have always been the home of innovation, knowledge and challenges. It is from cities that cultural models and changes begin. Cities have an active role and must therefore drive forward policies that fall strictly within their remit, such as the energy aspect, the question of mobility and transport, the quality of the urban environment and, not least, waste management. But cities also bear the responsibility of adapting to climate change; it is therefore a matter of conceiving the urban environment in a very different way from how it has been conceived until now," explained Zenoni.

Awareness campaigns for citizens are also planned, through shared environmental education pathways on the topic of climate change, in collaboration with the Province, ATS, the University of Bergamo and the municipal subsidiary companies operating in the environmental and energy sectors (Aprica, A2A).

Bergamo will also join the third Global climate strike by Fridays For Future on 27 September 2019.

The work done so far

In recent years Bergamo has joined the Covenant of Mayors, which promotes the implementation of a Sustainable Energy Action Plan, and over the past five years has promoted sustainable mobility, achieving 65 per cent of collective transport with low or zero environmental impact; to this are added the 32 electric vehicle charging points scattered across the city, which over the next five years are expected to reach 120. Bergamo is also among the Italian municipalities that have committed from the outset to becoming #plasticfree.

To combat the climate crisis, the Municipality has planted 7,300 new trees and has carried out the consolidation of 2.5 million square metres of agricultural land to the south of the city within the Parco dei Colli di Bergamo, thereby expanding the park's surface area within the city. Finally, with the aim of reducing CO2 emissions, Bergamo has allocated 170,000 euros for old oil-fired boilers.

The declaration of a state of climate emergency is not a finishing line, but merely the beginning of a journey that will lead Bergamo and, it is hoped, many other cities to combat the effects of climate change and eliminate its causes.