Need vision to fight climatechange-Renzi

(supersedes previous) (ANSA) - Rome, November 30 - 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).