Premier Mario Draghi said Friday that it was necessary to start taking climate change seriously or face the risk of emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic only to drift into another crisis a little down the road.
Speaking at the Cercle d'Economia meeting in Barcelona, Draghi also warned that governments must deliver greater social justice if they do not want populism to flare up again.
"We must ensure that the recovery is fair and sustainable," Draghi said.
"In the recent past we forgot the importance of social cohesion.
"We took democracy for granted and ignored the risk of populism.
"At the same time we must ensure there is greater attention to climate change in this recovery.
"We must not emerge from the health crisis only to sleepwalk into an environmental crisis". The premier added that the COVID-19 emergency was far from close to being over, given that much of the world is unvaccinated and there is the danger of new variants developing.
"The generally favourable prospects hide some significant risks," said the former president of the European central bank.
"Although the pandemic situation seems under control, we are still far from the end.
"The vaccination efforts have been concentrated in the rich world so far.
"Only 0.3% of the doses (have gone) to low-income countries while the richer ones have distributed 85%.
"This difference is not just ethically unjust, it is also highly dangerous.
"As long as the virus continues to circulate freely, there will always be the risk of new variants.
"One or more could be resistant to our vaccines, compromising the campaigns".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
