News Environment

Fridays for Future protests in Rome and across Italy

By: Wanted in Rome

Date:

26 Sep, 2019

School students and adults to attend Italy's climate change protests on 27 September.

Many Rome schools will authorise their pupils' attendance at the Friday for Future climate change demonstrations in the capital on 27 September after Italy's education minister Lorenzo Fioramonti encouraged students to skip school and participate in the protests.

The protests on Friday, to be held throughout Italy, will conclude the #ClimateActionWeek, with events held in 100 Italian cities. There are also Friday for Future demonstrations scheduled in 150 countries worldwide.

The largest event in Italy will be staged in Rome, with the Fridays for Future demonstration beginning at 09.30 in Piazza della Repubblica, with students marching to Piazza della Madonna di Loreto where they will stage a sit-in until 14.30.

The 'School strike for climate', also known as Fridays For Future, is a global movement of school students who swap classes for demonstrations to demand action to prevent further global warming and climate change.

It was begun in August 2018 by Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist who at the recent United Nations climate summit warned leaders: "If you choose to fail us we will never forgive you."

The demands of Fridays for Future protesters are: the abandonment of fossil energy sources and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to zero, climate justice for the peoples of the world, and trust in science.

On 25 September a flashmob was staged at the Colosseum by climate change activists Giudizio Universale (Last Judgment) who sat outside the amphitheatre on deckchairs and sunbeds with a sign: "The sea in 2050 will reach here".

Cover photo: Greta Thunberg in Piazza del Popolo on 19 April 2019.