Climate activists block Mont Blanc tunnel

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 9 - Traffic was held up on both the sides of the Mont Blanc tunnel on Friday due to a protest by supporters of Italian civil-disobedience group Ultima Generazione (UG) and their French counterparts from Dernière Rénovation.
    It is the latest in a series of controversial protests that the two groups have carried out to highlight the need to address the climate crisis.
    Concerned citizens from the Italian group started their protest at 12:30, holding up a banner than read 'Ultima Generazione - No Gas, No Coal', and they disrupted traffic for about an hour.
    Police had to call in firefighters to break the chains with which the protestors had locked themselves together before forcibly removing them.
    "A government should offer prospects of a stable future and the ability to have a family to new generations," said Alessandro, a 21-year-old UG member.
    "Instead, more and more people of my age don't want to have children because of the devastating future that the government is consciously condemning us to.
    "This is scary and unacceptable.
    "The government is not protecting us and for this reason I will continue to take this sort of action until our requests are met".
    Ultima Generazione is demanding the immediate halt to the reopening of decommissioned coal plants and the scrapping of new gas-drilling projects in Italy.
    It also wants the government to take action to increase the energy generated by renewables in Italy by at least 20GW each year.
    UG's actions have included blocking rush-hour traffic in big cities, disrupting people using private flights, spraying paint over the offices of institutions linked to fossil fuels and stunts involving important works of art.
    On Wednesday UG protesters threw blue and pink paint at the entrance of La Scala before the premiere of the iconic opera house's 2022-23 season.
    UG and Derniere Renovation are part of the A22 network of climate civil-disobedience groups active in several countries, such as Just Stop Oil in the UK, Stop Old Growth in Canada and Declare Emergency in the United States. (ANSA).