INTERVENTO DEL MINISTRO DELL’AMBIENTE, LA TUTELA DEL TERRITORIO E DEL MARE, ON. GIAN LUCA GALLETTI, AL DIALOGO INTERATTIVO “PROTECT THE PLANET AND COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE”  DEL VERTICE SULL’AGENDA PER LO SVILUPPO 2030 (27 settembre 2015) 

Distinguished Co-Chairs,



Distinguished Colleagues,

The adoption of the 2030 Agenda marks the turning point of a process that will define our common future and re-shape our policies for the next 15 years. We have all committed together, as a global community, to achieve peace and prosperity, and eliminate world imbalances, deploying all of the necessary actions. We left behind a compartmentalized approach to adopt an integrated vision that will enable us to strengthen our capacities in facing the complex challenges ahead of us. The 2030 Agenda compels us to endeavor so that the development and sustainability agendas can cohesively flank each other – and this is a great political challenge.


Distinguished Co-Chairs,

We are now faced with the daunting task of transforming the Agenda into reality, and Italy is committed to this purpose. Our economy must follow a circular flow and adopt more efficient production models, doing more with less, promoting recycling, and reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions while increasing the use of renewable energy.

The move to a national circular economy will be guided by the “Green Act,” which will provide useful instruments to create green jobs and mitigate the effects of global climate change. Fiscal and financial incentives will further accompany and facilitate this process. Revising our global strategy for sustainable development will pave the way to our national sustainable development goals. This process will demand a commitment from all stakeholders and depend on a consistent flow of energy and resources.

Italy plans to build a solid road toward implementation. This is how we intend to make a significant contribution to the upcoming session of the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), to which we attach great importance in terms of monitoring, revision, and follow-up.


Co-Chairs,

Much progress has been made since the Rio Conference in 2012. In Addis Ababa we agreed on the global agenda on financing and on the instruments of implementation for sustainable development. And today we are here to adopt the 2030 Agenda.

There is still a final step we have to take. We need to join efforts at COP21 to achieve a binding agreement on climate change, and back it up with a work programme until 2020 that is applicable to all Parties and compatible with the 2°C objective.

In 2013 we agreed in Warsaw to finalize our respective commitments through Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), keeping in mind the type of contribution and level of ambition, as well as our respective national situations and capacities. In our view, a gradual increase in INDCs with respect to previous levels of commitment is fundamental. We believe this to be a fair and effective approach, capable of overcoming the unchanging differentiation in the contributions of countries in order to reflect the substantial changes at the national level in recent years. The time has come for all Countries, especially the major economies, to make their pledge to mitigation through quantifiable and transparent INDCs.

We believe that a vital element for an effective post-2020 regime, based on the INDCs, is a clear, robust and flexible system of monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV). We welcome the requests of developing countries to strengthen their MRV capacities so they may make further progress. In this regard, we hope to strengthen the capacity building of the UNFCCC to guarantee an adequate response to their needs.

These aspects may seem extremely technical and complex, but this agreement is for the millions of citizens affected by climate change and will bring together our global efforts with continuous actions involving local communities.

Italy is strengthening international environmental cooperation with a number of Countries that are paying the highest price in terms of vulnerability to climate change, such as the Small Developing Islands and Countries of the African Continent. The goal is to promote responsibility, develop effective policies together, and allow all interested parties to become stakeholders in accelerating efforts to combat climate change.

Allow me to conclude by making one final observation: responsibility, awareness and action are fundamental. Civil society, local communities, the private sector, universities and global research must play an active part in this process.

The 2030 Agenda offers an extraordinary opportunity to guide our planet toward a sustainable pathway. This is inter-generational cooperation that we owe to our children and to future generations.

It is up to us now to take action and assure that no one is left behind.