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VENICE - Activists from Greenpeace Italy peacefully protested on traditional wooden rowing boats in front of Venice's world-famous landmarks, including St. Mark's Square and the Bridge of Sighs, and warned they would soon be flooded if the fossil-fuel industry continues its greenwashing agenda.
Yesterday, while parading through the canals of the lagoon city with the logos of major European fossil and gas companies, the activists proclaimed wryly The last tour of Venice, as the UNESCO World Heritage-listed city is known to be on the brink of extinction due to climate impacts in the Mediterranean. Greenpeace demands a new law banning fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship in the European Union to prevent the fossil fuel industry from promoting false solutions and delaying climate action.
Federico Spadini, climate activist from Greenpeace Italy said: “While Venice gets bad publicity because of its recurring floods and its own existence is endangered by the climate catastrophe, the polluters of the oil companies, like the tobacco manufacturers once did, clean their image with advertising and sponsorship. We need new EU law to stop advertising and sponsorship by companies working to make Europe dependent on oil. If we don't engage in a green and just energy transition, the final tourist trip to Venice could soon become a tragic reality.”
Venice is already facing the direct effects of the climate crisis. UNESCO conducted a study listing the impact of climate change on the city and warned it could lose its World Heritage status.[1] Corresponding a study by Greenpeace Italy using data from the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), sea levels in Venice could rise by more than a meter by the end of the century.
Last year, an investigation by DeSmog and Greenpeace Netherlands reviewed more than 3000 ads from six energy companies Shell, Total Energies, Preem, Eni, Repsol and Fortum on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The researchers found that nearly two-thirds of the ads evaluated by the six oil companies were greenwashing — misleading consumers by not accurately reflecting the companies' business and promoting false solutions.
Greenpeace promotes a European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) to ban advertising and sponsorship by fossil fuel companies. If an ECI reaches one million verified signatures by October, the European Commission is legally obliged to respond and discuss a legislative proposal to put an end to the fossil fuel industry's misleading propaganda.
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[1] UNESCO Report of the Joint WHC/ICOMOS/Ramsar Advisory Mission to Venice and Its Lagoon
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Photos: Greenpeace
