Addressing the closing ceremony of the international meeting ‘Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition’, the head of Government said that ‘we only have two alternatives, we assume the cost of the transition now, or we act later and pay a much higher price for the climate disaster.’

The recovery from the pandemic is an opportunity to push forward our climate ambitions and do so with fairness, Draghi said, affirming that the State must be prepared to support families and companies to overcome the costs of the transition at a short term.

Upon highlighting Italy’s work as co-chair of the next Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) and rotating G20 presidency, he said that ‘we are aware that we have to do more, much more.’

By concluding his speech, the Italian prime minister said the participants that ‘adults have learned what we have to do: mitigate, adapt and raise funds to help poor countries do the same, but, more than anything else, we have to do it now.’

Attendees to the three-day international meeting adopted a final declaration on Wednesday, in which they called for a meaningful participation in decision-making on climate change issues at the multilateral, national and local level.

On the third and final day, young people will present the conclusions of their deliberations to the participants at the ministerial preparatory meeting ahead of the COP26, scheduled for November 1-12 in Glasgow, Scotland.

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