Climate crisis, the great absentee in the Italian electoral campaign

Elections, in the news and in the Facebook post the environment is present in just over 10% of the statements analyzed

Despite the Droughtthe heat waves they fires that this summer have ravaged Italy, the climate crisis it is absent in the speeches of Italian political leaders, to the point that it is cited in less than 0.5% of their statements taken by the main news programs. It is the result of a monitoring of the election campaign released today by Greenpeace Italy and created by the Pavia Observatory, a research institute specializing in the analysis of communication.

The study was conducted by analyzing the statements of the main political leaders (Berlusconi, Bonelli, Bonino, Calenda, Conte, Della Vedova, Di Maio, Fratoianni, Letta, Meloni, Renzi, Salvini, Speranza, Tajani) in the prime time editions of the main generalist news broadcasts and in talk show politicians broadcast by Rai, Mediaset and La7 in the period between August 21 and the September 4th. On social media, the leaders’ 14 Facebook accounts were monitored.

In the news and in the Facebook post the environment is present in just over 10% of the statements analyzed – notes the study – In the talk shows analyzed, on the other hand, environmental issues are dealt with in 80% of the episodes, but they are often just mentioned and largely declined as economic policies to address the energy crisis.

The dominant frame it concerns issues ranging from ‘expensive gas / expensive bills’ to bureaucratic aspects (construction times and costs of the various types of energy plants), while we hardly ever talk about the climate crisis and its impacts on the environment and on people.

In the news, the statements made by the leaders regarding the climate crisis they are just 3.8% of those on the environment and less than 0.5% of the total declarations. It does slightly better on talk shows, where the climate crisis is mentioned in 7.8% of environmental speeches, equal to 6.2% of total statements. Even less space is devoted to climate change on Facebookcited in 2.1% of environmental posts, equal to approximately 0.2% of all posts published.

“What we are about to conclude is a summer that will be sadly remembered for the frequency and violence of extreme climatic events that we have seen or will continue to see in Italy. Yet this dramatic emergency does not seem to affect at all many of the political leaders who are running to lead the country – said Giuseppe Onufrio, executive director of Greenpeace Italy.

“This is what can be deduced, for example, from very little attention that, albeit with the necessary differences, the leaders proactively reserve the climate crisis, as evidenced by the very minimal percentage of Facebook posts dedicated to the topic. Instead, it is urgent that our political class finally acknowledge that climate change does not bring with it devastating consequences only from an environmental point of view, but causes victims, generates economic losses and accelerates other crises such as the food crisis “.

“While some are false solutions to the energy crisissuch as regasifiers or new generation nuclear power plants, which continue to be the subject of debate distracting from really effective interventions against the climate crisis, are divisive for party leaders, the theme of investments and acceleration on renewables, most cited compared to other sources, it seems to unite most of the parties “, explains Greenpeace.

“It would seem that, in words, a large part of the Italian political landscape has understood how fundamental it is for our future to focus heavily on a energy revolution that focuses on clean and renewable forms of energy, such as wind and solar. However, we do not know if this trend is due to real conviction or pure electoral greenwashing. But if the new government does not follow up the evidence, in addition to not responding to the climate crisis, we will also risk losing the development opportunities that the renewable transition offers “, concludes Onufrio.

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