In 2035 I will be 70 and if I am lucky I will have time to see the end of petrol and diesel cars. From that year in the European Union it will be forbidden to buy them. Those who have them can continue to use them, but they can no longer be bought. In short, my children will live in a world of electric cars: less noise, zero pollution. If we have also done the rest of the things we have planned, the trains and buses will also have clean, renewable fuels, and it will be possible to go around the continent by bicycle following special tracks. The air will finally be breathable also because the factories will have converted their production systems, choosing electrification where possible.
And public and private buildings will be able to manage heat better, retaining it in the winter and cooling it in the summer. By then, finally, most of our waste will stop calling it that: we will call them “resources” and we will treat them so that they can return to being useful materials, no longer raw materials, but secondary materials in a virtuous circle that never ends . The days of the Environment, of the Earth, of Biodiversity and of the Oceans will have been abolished, because they will be celebrated every day. I am not dreaming. And this is not a song by Lucio Dalla: in 2035 it will not be three times Christmas and a party all day. But I am happy, because yesterday the European Parliament could have done the most comfortable thing and instead did the right thing. I can’t wait for 2035 to arrive.