Torino, 15/11/2025 – Extinction Rebellion unfurled a large banner from the roof of Porta Susa reading “COP2025: 1.5°C Late,” denouncing government delays on international climate policies during the days of COP30 in Belem, in the Amazon, which activists say will push global temperatures toward a 2.6°C rise.

This morning, members of the group climbed onto the station roof using harnesses and helmets. They lowered the banner across the glass facade above the main entrance. On the sidewalk below, people formed a small presence to speak with passers-by.

Among them was a person dressed as the White Rabbit, anxiously checking a watch and muttering “It is late,” a theatrical way to emphasize urgency as COP30 takes place in Belem, the Amazonian capital.

In Belem, government representatives have presented national pledges aimed at keeping warming under 1.5°C, a limit many scientists now consider unattainable. Despite their commitments, the current emission-cut plans still lead toward a catastrophic 2.6°C temperature increase.

“The average temperature last year was 1.55°C: an obvious failure of all climate policies in recent years,” says Ivan. He argues that global conferences “have been transformed from meetings of world diplomacy into trade fairs held in petrostates among the most authoritarian countries: Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan,” where thousands of lobbyists attend each year to protect profits and block real progress on decarbonization.

Fossil-fuel lobby participation has risen steadily, reaching more than 1,600 lobbyists in Belem, exceeding the size of any national delegation except Brazil’s. Meanwhile, some delegations, including Italy’s, have scaled back. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, will not attend, which Ivan describes as “a disengagement that reflects Italy’s position on decarbonization: anti-scientific and ideological.”

He also points to Italy’s obstruction of major European climate policies, from 2040 emission-reduction targets to electric-vehicle standards and industrial decarbonization plans, along with recent government approval for 34 new oil and gas exploration licenses across the country.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres underscored the gravity of the situation, stating days ago that “we have failed and exceeding 1.5°C is now inevitable in the coming years.” In 2025, Europe recorded 16,500 heat-related deaths, while thousands worldwide died in extreme climate events driven by rising temperatures, including more than 400 fatalities linked to the Los Angeles fires last January, over 200 in the Valencia flood of October 2024, and widespread destruction in Jamaica and Cuba caused by tornado Melissa days ago.

“Totally ideological and anti-scientific policies can also be seen at the local level,” adds Irene of Extinction Rebellion. She notes that the Piedmont Region continues to invest in energy-intensive projects such as major infrastructure and ski-slope systems. For 2025, the Region allocated 70 million euros to expand artificial-snowmaking operations requiring large quantities of energy and water from 23 snow basins, even though 76 ski facilities have been abandoned because snow no longer falls at those altitudes.

“The impacts of the crisis are increasingly intense and those in government today, in Italy and in Piedmont, are literally leading us to collapse,” declares Elsa. “We are in an emergency, there is no more time for the government’s fairy tales: the moment is now, it is already late.”

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