Today’s calls for better climate change policies and actions have been roaring around the globe and have already reached 136 countries. I am happy to have given my contribution to the strike by speaking in Mezzocorona about the new friendship between the environmental movements and the Catholic Church. A friendship that started in 2015, when Pope Francis published the Laudato Si’ enciclica, and continued on April 17, when he met Greta Thunberg in Rome.

These days, the environmental crises is not only discussed in the Laudato Si’ or at the 2nd Global Climate Strike but also in the EU election campaigns. These elections are not only about immigrants. The EU has been one of the greatest leaders and pioneers to set new environmental protection laws and conservation goals. Think about how limited the impact of our environmental measures would be, if they were restricted to our environmental measures would be, if they were restricted to our national borders. How effective would national river pollution measures be, if a river passed through five or six different EU states? And take the EU Water Framework into account. It’s an outstanding achievement that was obtained only thanks to the EU.
For me, the EU is the most powerful institutionalized protector of the environment.
For me, the EU means that no matter if I’m in Veneto, Trentino, Tyrol or Upper Austria, there will always be some basic environmental protection laws that guarantee my right to have a clean and livable environment.