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September 25, 2021 "You are not the future, you are the present. We are evolving and we must move forward, you must do it for your future and that of your children. I wish you to make a noise, make yourself heard!".
Pope Francis said this at the private meeting held in the Sala Clementina with a delegation of 50 young people from Earth Day, the representatives of Italy at the Cop Giovani in Milan and the Minister of Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani.
On 28 September 2021 Milan will host the 'Youth4Climate': two young people from each of the 197 member countries of the UNFFCC (the United Nations Convention on Climate Change) will be engaged in working groups and debates, a preparatory stage for COP 26 in Glasgow, in which young people will be the protagonists and will have the opportunity to officially contribute to the United Nations climate negotiations.
Earth Day Italia, since the COP Giovani was announced, has sensitized public opinion and institutions to give importance to this event which restores an intergenerational perspective to the theme of climate change. "In about 30 years, 25 climate conferences have not been able to stop the constant increase in the atmosphere of climate-alternating gases with consequences that now risk becoming irreversible. Young people will pay the greatest price and listening to them is no longer just a question. of institutional correctness but rather of historical justice ", declared Pierluigi Sassi, President of Earth Day Italia, who explains:" In agreement with the Minister of Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, who chairs the Pre Cop of Milan,we wanted to ask for a special blessing from Pope Francis who six years ago promulgated the encyclical letter Laudato si 'trying, like the young people of COP, to urge the United Nations to seek the Common Good rather than to defend predatory economic systems based on a throwaway culture ".
The private audience was attended by Father Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam, Coordinator of the Ecology and Creation sector at the Dicastery for the Integral Promotion of Human Development, Alberto Gambescia, Sole Director of the Agency Studiare Sviluppo del Mef, Davide D'Arcangelo, Founder of Impatta , a network of companies committed to supporting young innovators in the environmental sector. During the audience Pope Francis received as a gift the work "Saving the Earth" made with recycled material by the Florentine artist Neri Frullini who explains: "It is a limited edition of 4 pieces that I made using waste materials, intended pulp, to reinvent them and give them a new life: consequently this is a work that respects nature,because he did not need new raw materials to see the light. "A copy of the work was signed by the young people present and by the Pope and entrusted to the two young people who will represent Italy at the Cop Giovani, Federica Gasbarro and Daniele Guadagnolo, for bring it symbolically as a gift to the approximately 400 colleagues with whom they will meet in Milan.