– text also available in Italian –
On 26 November 2015 at the “Teatro Due”, in Rome, took place the conference “Paris Climate Conference – COP21: a challenge for the future”. It was organized by the “Environment and Agriculture Commission” of the Democratic Party of Lazio and by the “PD political group” of the Regional Council of Lazio.
Below is a summary of the speeches.
Cristiana Avenali, coordinator of PD Lazio “Environment and Agriculture Commission” and Regional Councillor of Lazio
Cristiana opened the proceedings of the workshop dedicated to issues of the environment of Lazio as a recalling of the incoming international conference in Paris on the environment – COP21.
Cristiana remarked that “the Climate Conference in Paris is a historic moment to reach a binding agreement that commits all countries to limit their CO2 emissions to prevent global warming, to promote energy sustainability and to intervene with new laws to prevent the wastage of resources. We have to implement adaptation strategies and mitigation to strengthen resilience to climate changes and reduce the cost of managing these risks.”
Avenali pointed out that it is no longer time for words: we need a joint commitment at the global level and useful in each country.
“The climate just as said by Pope Francis is severely threatened and I believe because human activities in the last century favored a dangerous increase in global temperature,” said Regional Councillor.
In fact, according to the «Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change», in the last century (1905-2005) the average temperature of the Earth has risen by 0.74 ° C, while in the decades prior to 1950 increased at an average rate of less than 0.06 ° C per decade.
According to many studies on the subject, by the end of the XXI century, the increase in average global temperatures could reach 4 degrees. The impacts would be devastating especially to the poorest countries with the consequences of displacement and migration waves, so-called “climate refugees”.
“I confirm once again the importance of a «Green Act for Italy» and for our region, a route on which I am working with a set of legislative proposals and interventions, aimed to implement concrete actions, investments need to deal with the hydrogeological disruption and to promote sustainable mobility, use of alternative sources and ensure proper waste management”, concluded Cristiana Avenali.
Riccardo Valentini, Regional Councillor of Lazio, speaker of “PD political group” of the Regional Council of Lazio
Riccardo, Physics professor and member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is also component of the panel of scholars that in 2007 was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to spread knowledge on climate.
Valentini in his speech recalled the causes of global warming: first of all the energy consumption that contributes to approximately 75%.
Agriculture and farms are responsible for 14%.
In this situation, Valentini said that “today we are the polar bears” because due to floods, droughts, heat waves and violent tropical storms climate changes not only threatens polar bears, an iconic symbol of the continuing reduction of sea ice, but it has a deep impact on humans with effects that will intensify unless we reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
According to Valentini we must make clean energy, especially electricity, using solar and accumulators and we must make efficient homes, making sure that don’t disperse heat.
Even transport affects the global temperature: we should reduce the use of cars, preferring public transport and cycling.
“It is necessary to review the way we live” said Riccardo, “because we need a change which is more sociological than technological.”
We need to revise our way of living, wealth distribution and the way of guarantying everybody’s rights.
According to Riccardo, “this is a «Sliding Doors time», where changing a detail could change the ending. Politics asked us a precise number to understand the limit of sustainability, and we have set at 2 ° C. Some models show that if temperature should raise up to 3° or 4° C Greenland would melt, producing a rise in sea levels that would put at risk the lives of 100 million people.
If the temperature should rise up to 5 ° or 6 ° C, if the population continues to increase and the emerging economies continue to use fossil fuels, there would be the third mass extinction of plant and animal species.”
Round table
After the speeches of Avenali and Valentini a “round table” took place with the participation of local government officials, academics and politicians; among them:
- Italo Carones, Oriolo Romano Deputy Mayor
- Andrea Filpa, WWF Lazio Director
- Paolo Gandolfi, PD Parlamentarian, Transport Commission
- Maurizio Gubbiotti, Federparchi Lazio Coordinator
- Simone Ombuen, Department of Architecture, University of Rome (pdf, 38 slide, 1.9 M)
- Raniero Maggini, “Occhio del Riciclone” President
- Roberto Scacchi, Legambiente Lazio President
- Alessandro Coppola, “Roma resiliente project” coordinator (pdf, 22 slide, 3.4 M)
See also
- PD Lazio Workshop, “A network for legality” – contributions (29 November 2015)
- Interview with Lucia Valente, the Lazio Region’s Deputy Governor for Jobs (November 16th, 2015)
- A permanent round table between Pd Lazio and Regione Lazio regarding Jobs (November 15th, 2015)
- Prevention as a primary goal: we must start with vaccination – Interview with Valentina Mantua (October 22nd, 2015)
- The “Jobs conference” of the Lazio Democratic Party – contributions (17 October 2015)
- October 15th, 2015 the “Jobs conference” of the Lazio Democratic Party – Interview with Bruno Scazzocchio
- Iside Castagnola: let’s build an active Democratic Party (October 13th, 2015)
- Democratic Party of Lazio: Conference on “Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and new jobs” – 15th October 2015
- Political transparency – interview with Teresa Petrangolini, Regional Councilor of Lazio, Italy (September 27th, 2015)
Democratic Party of Lazio
Metro Flaminio)