A message for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day from Italian Minister of Education Lorenzo Fioramonti

This is my message to Earth Day 2020. The time to act is now. By next year, we’ll have only 10 years left before we hit the wall. Twenty-thirty is the end of a process; we only have 10 years in order to achieve solutions.

Let’s face it, we have been waiting for decades and decades. We know the devastating effects of climate change. We’ve known it since the 1960s, and yet we have done very little until now. Now it’s a great time, it’s the perfect time: We have global awareness of the devastating effects of climate change.

Climate change is not just an environmental problem; it’s a problem of social justice, it’s a problem of access, it’s a problem of energy, it’s a problem of social coordination across many countries.

- Lorenzo Fioramonti, Minister of Education for Italy

We have a young generation of students and activists. They are mobilizing across the planet and we, perhaps, have also a generation of politicians that are willing to take responsibility for a radical transformation of our economy. Because we do need transition to different economy in order to resolve this challenge, to address this challenge. We do need a dramatic difference, to make a dramatic difference, in order to transform our global economic and social system.

Climate change is not just an environmental problem; it’s a problem of social justice, it’s a problem of access, it’s a problem of energy, it’s a problem of social coordination across many countries. We do need to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals, and there is little time left. Earth Day can become a catalyst on its 50th year, a catalyst to really mobilize a mass of people. An intergenerational effort to transform, to turn 2020 into the year in which everyone realizes time that is running out, and we can no longer wait.

In Italy, for instance, we are going to be activating a global debate. A national and global debate on the kind of country we want by 2030. Introducing environmental and ecological education in schools, having universities hold workshops and seminars on the kind of ecological transformation that we need. We want to transform the first six months of 2020 into a general conversation on the future we want.

Earth Day can really become a fundamental and global catalyst to activate that radical transformation we have been waiting for and now we can no long hesitate to activate. So, let’s work together towards achieving those objectives.