The request by Fridays For Future Milan has been accepted: the municipality of Milan has declared a climate and environmental emergency, making it the first major city to do so, and the second in Italy.
Over the past year, there has been growing awareness among the general public of the great and looming threat posed by climate change. Thanks to the climate movements Fridays for Future, born from the solitary protest of Greta Thunberg, and Extinction Rebellion, almost two million people around the world have taken to the streets to demand that governments take immediate and concrete action to curb the effects of global warming. The United Kingdom and Ireland, just a few days ago, became the first countries to heed the call — along with almost 500 local councils — and declare a climate and environmental emergency.
In Italy, meanwhile, politics — caught up in a never-ending electoral campaign — does not appear to be concerned about climate change, despite its effects already being plain to see and the Mediterranean being one of the most affected areas on the planet (average temperatures, compared to the pre-industrial era, have risen by 1.4 degrees, 0.4 degrees more than the global average). Given the inaction of institutions, activists from Fridays for Future Milan formally called on the Milan municipality to declare a climate and environmental emergency.
On 20 May, the city council met at Palazzo Marino in Milan, during which a motion to declare a climate and environmental emergency was put forward. The motion incorporating Fridays for Future Milan's demands was formally tabled by councillor Carlo Monguzzi (Pd). The motion was approved with 30 votes in favour, with 6 votes against. "Now I can say it was worth striking from school all those days," declared a young activist from the climate movement euphorically at the end of the council meeting. Milan thus becomes the second Italian city, and the first by size, to officially recognise the state of climate crisis. The first was Acri, in Calabria, on 29 April.
The request, addressed to the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, and to the President of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana, was submitted on 17 May, ahead of the second global strike for the future on 24 May, following the extraordinary turnout of the first strike, which on 15 March saw 1,600,000 people take to the streets. Drawing on the moral duty of the state and all local institutions to uphold the intergenerational pact, "which obliges us to leave future generations a liveable planet," Fridays for Future Milan called on "the municipality of Milan, the metropolitan city, the Lombardy Region, the national government, universities, schools, and every community in our territory to declare a state of climate and environmental emergency."
The goal of the Fridays for Future movement is, just as the person who inspired its founding did, to sound an alarm to stir consciences and, above all, to secure concrete action. "The fight against climate and ecological collapse and the protection of the environment are the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced," reads Fridays for Future Milan's statement. "We are facing a crisis that is not only climatic but also existential, given the rate at which we are irreparably compromising the Earth's ecosystem and the survival of all living beings, including the human species. To avoid climate chaos, concrete and urgent measures are needed. To ecologically transform our economy, everyone's participation is required."
In addition to declaring a state of climate and environmental emergency, Milan's climate activists have called on institutions to "make every possible effort to keep the rise in global temperature within 1.5 degrees and to set a target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2030." Authorities should also consider the fight against climate change and the transition to a sustainable economy as the absolute priority for the next ten years. Finally, just as Extinction Rebellion activists did in Great Britain, Fridays For Future Milan has called for greater importance to be given to participatory democracy: institutions must commit to granting citizens' assemblies a role in the process of identifying measures to tackle the climate emergency.