BOLOGNA FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE

We are citizens of Bologna. Whether born  or moved here, Bologna is a city we all call home / where we all feel at home. However the city we imagine is not the city we currently live.

The pandemic unveiled once again our fragilities. From a social perspective, as crises affect people differently depending on their profession, income, neighbourhood, familial and social relations. From an environmental perspective, as the cost we pay for a blind prioritisation of infrastructure is that of a polluted and insalubrious city. 

These issues extend to the metropolitan area, the Pianura Padana, the European continent, the planet. The climate emergency is the battle of the century, which if left unmet will further increase inequality between wealthy and poor. It’s the knot in which the the threads of inequality, exploitation and discrimination converge. This is the load capitalism has created through centuries of profit accumulation achieved through the work of many but only benefitting a few.

We believe there is a single solution to facing the risk of human extinction and the devastating consequences of global warming: change the system. We are in fact at a crossway and the only path that could guarantee a prosperous future to generations to come is narrow and challenging. Passing through ecological reconversion, equality and the valorisation of collectiveness in our choices, actions and activities. 

It is clearly a global challenge, which is necessarily connected with the local dimension: we want to put our efforts in this relation. We want to live in a city which is able to make every possible effort for climate justice. For this reason, for example, we think that in urban planning cementification should be diminished, the city should be renaturalized, mobility should be for people not for cars and health and well-being should come before profits and investments.

We want to be citizens of an ambitious community which can demonstrate that the climate crisis could be overcame through the increase of collective wellbeing and quality of life. For us it is not enough to “not leave anyone behind”, we want to share with disadvantaged people the first line.

We look with hope to people belonging to different movements that fight everyday, in every part of the world, to defend the territories they live in and to reclaim their rights and dignity. We refuse the contradiction between work and the environment, used as blackmail by those who want to keep the status quo. We reclaim for everyone the right to have a dignified and socially valued job. We consider ecology as a compass able to guide our choices, through the essential protection of local and global natural resources.

For these reasons, we decided to unite in Bologna for Climate Justice.  We want to contribute with our effort to the many fights, in our city and elsewhere, defending the territory and communities. We want to propose ideas that could allow us to imagine Bologna as a city in which future generations would be proud to live in. 

We have a dream: that anything won’t be as before and contribute to the revolution for climate justice.