Six months after the Senate's rejection, the Chamber of Deputies yesterday approved a motion recognising the climate emergency and committing the government to declaring one. Among the objectives: promoting carbon neutrality by 2050.
The climate is changing, and fortunately this time so is the Italian parliament. Six months after the Senate's refusal to vote on the declaration of a climate emergency, it was the Chamber of Deputies that stepped in yesterday, voting in favour of a motion committing the government not only to declaring one (as many states, regions, local authorities and the European Union have already done) but also to addressing it with adequate measures.
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The initiative was put forward by Rossella Muroni, a member of parliament for Liberi e uguali and former president of Legambiente, who is celebrating: "after weeks of weather alerts that have battered the country, on the very day that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen presents the Green deal for Europe in Brussels, the Chamber approves the majority motion bearing my name as first signatory, moving from words to concrete commitments to tackle the climate crisis and sending an important signal to the UN climate summit in Madrid and to the young people of the climate strikes".
The act commits the government to strengthening the National Energy and Climate Plan, which focuses on decarbonisation, energy efficiency and security, development of the internal energy market, research, innovation and competitiveness, in order to implement the commitments of the Paris Agreement, to gradually phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies, and to drawing up a structural plan for land safety, risk mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
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The government will also have to work towards enshrining the principle of sustainable development in the Constitution and ensuring the full operability of the Cabina di regia Benessere Italia (the technical-scientific support body for wellbeing policies and the assessment of citizens' quality of life), in order to accelerate the energy transition and reduce CO2 emissions more rapidly and with greater certainty, thereby steering the Italian system towards ecological conversion.
The motion also commits the government to a programme of public investment oriented towards sustainability that involves the main productive sectors. The executive will also have to support, at European level, the objective of carbon neutrality by 2050, promote the circular economy, and work towards environmentally conscious mobility and industrial production. In short, Rossella Muroni concludes, "for a Green deal capable of guaranteeing greater security for citizens and a future of wellbeing for the country, for a great challenge that we can win together".