Italy's Ultima Generazione (Last
Generation) group on Friday continued a series of road-block
protests in Italian cities to highlight the need to combat the
climate crisis, halting traffic on two major Rome highways in
rush-hour traffic and causing considerable disruption for
commuters trying to get to work.
The young 'concerned citizens' sat and lay down on the busy
Magliana and Tangenziale Est roads in the capital, forcing
traffic to stop, with banners saying 'No Oil, No Gas'.
They created major traffic jams before police and firefighters
managed to clear the roads.
"We are sorry to cause inconvenience," Ultima Generazione said
via Twitter.
"But it is the only way we have left to get heard".
Several Ultima Generazione members recently staged long hunger
strikes in a bid to get Italy's political parties to focus on
the climate crisis, which has been manifest in Italy in many
ways over the last year, including deadly storms and months of
drought that caused massive problems for agriculture.
But the hunger strikes were largely ignored by politicians and
the media.
So the group has reverted to staging road blocks, as they did
earlier in this year - protests that often caused angry
reactions from the motorists affected.
Ultima Generazione is demanding the immediate halt to the
reopening of decommission coal plants and the scrapping of new
gas-drilling projects.
It also wants the government to take action to increase the
energy generated by renewables in Italy by at least 20GW each
year.
Ultima Generazione is part of the A22 network of climate
civil-disobedience groups active in several countries, such as
Just Stop Oil in the UK, Stop Old Growth in Canada, Derniere
Renovation in France and Declare Emergency in the United States.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
