Climate activists turned Venice’s Grand Canal bright green on Saturday, November 22nd, as countries met in Brazil to discuss phasing out fossil fuels at the UN climate conference.
The group Extinction Rebellion said its activists had poured eco-friendly dye into waterways in ten Italian cities to highlight “the enormous impact of the climate catastrophe.”
Greta Thunberg also took part in the ‘Stop Ecocide’ protest in Venice, where demonstrators dressed in red and wearing veils walked among crowds of tourists. Activists dyed the Po River in Turin, the Reno River in Bologna, the Tara River in Taranto, as well as fountains in Padua and Genoa.
No concrete pledges were made to cut fossil fuels at the COP30 UN summit that ended on Saturday, although the aim of the gathering was to agree on measures to accelerate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Activists say the UN climate conferences are one of the most important global summits capable of “averting collapse,” and argue that Italy was once again “among the countries blocking the most ambitious proposals.”
