ROME - The Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi declared that private diesel vehicles will be banned in the historic centre of Rome from 2024.

 The news was first announced at the C40 conference in Mexico City, and then later shared by Raggi on her Facebook page, accompanied by the video of her speech at the conference.

 Raggi expressed the need to “act quickly,” as Rome “runs the risk of facing unexpected challenges” due to climate change.

 The Mayor pointed out that “in the next few years, most of the world’s population will be living in large urban areas,” meaning that “the people living in these cities will have a strong and direct impact on climate change.” She labelled “pollution” as the main cause of the change, and consequently, expressed the need for the usage of fossil fuels to be controlled.

 Raggi was particularly struck by the statistic that “cities consume more than 2/3rds of global energy and produce more than 70% of greenhouse gases,” and expressed that “large urban areas will be divisive in the challenge of the future.”

 In order to combat the increasingly visible effects of climate change, Raggi revealed the plan to invest heavily in “public transport and sustainable transport,” with the aim of only purchasing 0 emission buses for transport from 2025. The use of “car sharing, bike sharing and pedestrian paths” will also be encouraged as a means to facilitate the move away from the use of private vehicles.

 Raggi has pledged that Rome will continue to be “in the front line tackling climate changes.”

 eh