Barack Obama's arrival in Milan sparked the most varied reactions, but what did he actually say about climate change and food — the real reason for his Italian stop?
A Barack Obama more relaxed than last autumn, when he tried — in vain — by every means to carry Democratic White House candidate Hillary Clinton to victory, took to the stage in the Future Room at the Seeds&Chips summit under way in Milan to speak about food, innovation, and above all climate: the fundamental link in a long and intricate chain called sustainability.
Climate change topped the political agenda of the United States throughout Obama's eight years in office because it is "the challenge that will define the contours of our century, more dramatically than any other," he declared. No nation, indeed, "will be immune from the effects of global warming."
Climate and food. Two issues that chase each other, because on the one hand "a changing climate has already made it harder to produce food," plunging many countries into instability and many people into poverty, while on the other the way food is produced today has a devastating impact on the climate. A "very emotionally complex" subject, according to the former US president, "because food is part of people's personal sphere — it touches families and traditions." For this reason, in the United States as in Europe, changing eating habits is very complicated. Obama himself says he is not a vegetarian: "I respect them, but I don't want to become one."
Resistance to change is particularly apparent when one considers that agriculture is a very powerful sector within a state — so much so that it is difficult even to bring new players into the market. For this reason, despite being an important aspect of the fight against global warming, it is also the most complex to address. This resistance, again according to Obama, should spur those in institutional roles who can claim strong leadership to try to work much harder on empowering communities, businesses and organisations that can have a positive impact on sustainable development: from food to energy to mobility.
Only in this way can people — particularly the young, who are very often the least listened to — equip themselves with the tools to gain knowledge and deepen their understanding of issues such as food security and climate change. The aim is action. Shared and sustainable, respecting the freedoms of others. And on the very concept of freedom, Obama chose to issue a warning to environmental activists: "I consider myself an activist too, and I too, in the past, have made the mistake of refusing to compromise and wanting to take home 100 per cent of demands. But in a democracy this is not possible, because it is inevitable that your interests will clash with those of others." That is why, in order to achieve concrete goals, it is important to know how to listen and try to get the most possible out of a negotiation. Conversely, wanting everything at once leads to getting nothing at all.
Perhaps a reference to the failure of COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009, which ended with nothing achieved despite (extremely) high expectations. Revenge would come seven years later in Paris. Obama, indeed, expressed satisfaction with the results achieved at COP 21 and with the Paris Agreement. The key to this optimism lies in the approach. The global agreement reached in 2016 should not be conceived as "the solution to climate change, but rather as the instrument that gave life to the mechanism, to the architecture needed to cut CO2 emissions" more easily. Now the United States, China and the European Union must accelerate in order to set a good example. Obama — without ever naming his successor Donald Trump — also believes that the private sector is far ahead of governments because it is "determined to follow the path of reducing CO2, of clean energy and efficiency." These are the reasons that lead the 44th president of the United States to be confident that his country will continue on the right path despite threatening signals coming from Washington.
