“We are all a bit hung up, waiting for the outcome of the Global Stocktake and the final decision that should provide the first formal act of the will to move away from fossil fuels and replace them with renewables and a more efficient, much less ‘wasteful’ way of consuming the planet’s energy and resources. Yet today we want to launch a new way of imagining and managing the transition, with no tricks and no loopholes: we believe that we should all participate, govern, plan and harmonise the energy transition and that of the entire economy,’ said Mariagrazia Midulla, resp. Climate and Energy of WWF Italy, opening this morning the side event organised by WWF Italy in the Italian Pavilion of the COP28 in Dubai, which saw the participation of Edoardo Zanchini, Director of the Climate Office of the Municipality of Rome, Daniele Agostini, Head of Climate and Energy Policies of Enel, Simona Fabiani, Head of Environment of CGIL and Viviane Raddatz, Head of Climate and Energy of WWF Germany.
“The climate crisis calls us to accelerate the transition if we want to achieve the goal of avoiding catastrophic climate change. But this is also the only way to seize the positive opportunities that the transition presents. Not only new, attractive jobs in large numbers, not only healthier air and less pollution from substances that are harmful to our health and almost always accompany those that damage the climate: the energy transition and the digital transition together are creating a new world, and now is the right time to imagine it in a participatory way. At the same time, we have to adapt our thinking to the new reality, the transition is not only about cutting emissions, but also about adapting to the new climate conditions and providing nature with the opportunity and space to regenerate,’ Midulla emphasised.
“In short, from a COP invaded by lobbies that do not want to lose power, we call upon all stakeholders, of whom we have had some significant representatives here, to initiate the new phase, the one in which problems are not denied, but solved together.
In Italy we have a perhaps unrepeatable opportunity with the PNRR and the PNIEC: we absolutely must not waste it, hence the appeal, which emerged from this morning’s panel, to seize the opportunity to start an active interlocution with and among stakeholders. We have proposed to all of them to form a sort of ‘dream team’ to start the journey together, and the president of Global Compact Italia, Marco Frey, has also given his availability. Things have to be started, then they happen,’ Midulla concluded.
