(Finance) – “The global challenge to climate change starts from the new generations, from their commitment, their ideas and their solutions”. It’s the goal of Youth4Climateglobal initiative organized in Rome from 17 to 19 October, co-led by Italy and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which on the topic of the environment and the fight against climate change has decided to involve young people in a real “battle of ideas” and solutions . All this by encouraging a close dialogue between public and private, between institutions and businesses. As can be read on FS News, the information portal of the Ferrovie dello Stato Group, among the latter also the FS Group which brought its commitment to Youth4Climate to become Carbon Neutral by 2040 (ten years earlier than required by the EU), promoting sustainable and collective mobility. It is no coincidence that the title of this edition of Youth4Climate is “Sparkling Solutions“, brilliant solutions for a more sustainable future in four specific areas: climate education, energy, food and agriculture and urban sustainability.
From Palazzo Rospigliosi in Rome, therefore, a window has opened with a view of COP 28, the General Climate Conference scheduled in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December 2023. In the meantime, however 130 young people under 30 from 63 countries around the world arrived in the Italian capital, selected from more than a thousand candidates. In their suitcase many concrete and strategic ideas and solutions to project us into a safer and more planet-friendly future. Just some of these projects on October 20th they will be selected as winners, as part of a day in which the Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani and the Minister of the Environment Gilberto Pichetto Fratin will also participate and for the FS Group Adriano Mureddu, Chief Human Resources Officer. A ceremony at the end of three days which represents a real laboratory of ideas, a think tank, an area for exchange and dialogue of proposals, solutions and best practices.
And among the subjects involved in this osmosis of ideas and concrete projects there was also the FS Groupwhich on 18 October in the “Private sector Engagement” panel at Palazzo Rospigliosi he was able to talk about with the other companies the commitment of the private sector to promoting the culture of sustainability. In particular, to illustrate the mission of Ferrovie dello Stato in the field of the fight against climate change and to answer the questions of the young participants, Lorenzo Radice, Group Sustainability Manager who highlighted FS’s commitment to promoting collective mobility, especially rail mobility, which sees the train as the sustainable means of transport par excellence. Passengers, but also goods, given that FS’s objective is to double the share of goods traveling on trains within ten years, to reduce traffic on now congested roads. “All of this – underlined Radice – will lead us to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040: the first step is to halve, by 2030, direct and indirect emissions and reduce those in the value chain by 30%, aiming to eliminate emissions ten years earlier than the target set by the EU”.
A concrete commitment that can only be achieved by investing in innovation through an open attitude towards the outside world and the vast startup ecosystem. This is why Ferrovie dello Stato has launched “the register of startups which, as underlined by Davide Pifferi, Innovation of the FS Group while answering the questions of the youth of Youth4Climate, brings together all the young innovative companies that are applying to collaborate with Ferrovie, to make more collaboration on specific projects is agile and transparent, in the name of open innovation.
All together, therefore, we can and must do it, because as young people say in their “Fridays for Future” there is no Planet B and there is an urgent need for solutions for a future protected from climate crises, which are increasingly frequent and devastating, especially in the most fragile of the Earth. Also for this the Colosseum was lit up with the Youth4Climate logo on October 18th. And for one night the symbol of Rome also becomes the symbol of a commitment that can no longer be postponed.