(supersedes previous)
Premier Matteo Renzi told the
United Nations COP21 climate change conference in Paris on
Monday that a political vision is needed to solve this pressing
issue.
"The question is financial and economic (...) but above all
it is political," he said, adding that his government put four
billion euros to combat climate change "from here to 2020" in
its 2016 budget bill.
"Now is the time to act," he said. "We are called to map
out the future of the world".
"There is no greater symbol than nature," he went on.
"(Ancient Roman statesman and philosopher) Seneca said all art
is an imitation of nature. Lawmakers are being called on to
create a masterpiece - to design the setting in which our
children will live. Nature must be defended and we ourselves
must defend it".
"I bring you the voice of a country (...) with the proper
credentials, from green economy to geothermal energy," Renzi
said.
"We are the first country in the world in terms of solar
power use in the national energy mix - at 8%," he added.
Italy has been proactive and done more than it is sometimes
given credit for on climate change.
"We have to get away from the rhetoric that Italy doesn't
do enough," the premier said earlier in the day.
"It has cut emissions by 23% since 1990, it has a
$4-billion investment plan from now till 2020, our firms are on
the front line, from ENI to ENEL. Italy has a lot to say and do
in this sector," he said.
Reaching an international accord, he said, won't be easy.
"There were moments of heated debate over lunch," he said.
"It won't be easy to reach an accord, but it is crucial that
we do so. Italy is doing its bit but the real problem is that
not everyone is behaving in the same way on a global level."
He said "we must make an effort to help others reach these
results".
Renzi added "the most binding accord possible (is needed),
otherwise it risks being written in the sand".
The center-left premier added his government is not worried
about Italy's GDP in the wake of the November 13 Islamist terror
attacks in Paris.
"Italy's GDP will grow, not shrink," he said. "We have no
fears on Italian GDP...however we are very concerned about the
planet".
Renzi earlier said "there is a challenge that concerns us
all: the future of the planet. We must realise that we are at a
crossroads. Italy wants to be among the protagonists of the
fight against selfishness, on the side of those who choose
non-negotiable values like the defence of our mother Earth."
Separately, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said in a
report Monday that Italy is the European Union country
worst-affected by air pollution-related deaths. It estimated
that there were 84,400 deaths of this type in Italy in 2012 out
of total 491,000 for the whole EU. It said 59,500 premature
deaths in Italy that year were were attributable to fine
particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure, 3,300 to ozone (O3) and
21,600 to nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
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