Vatican City  – Fighting climate change, making our food system more sustainable and our sociaty more fair. This is the message delivered by the Mayor of Milan, Giuliano Pisapia, at the workshop: “Modern Slavery and Climate Change:The Commitment of the Cities”, organized by the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences. More than 60 mayors from all over the world gave an answear to Pope Francis’ call, partecipating to the event today.
Milan, Rome, New York, Johannesburg, Vancouver, Medellin, Accra, Stockholm and many other cities met in order to discuss two big global emergencies, deeply linked together: climate changes and modern slaveries.
“The urbanization rate has raised more and more. Today, 50% of the global populations lives in cities, in 2050 it will be the 70%. Cities have to make an effort in order to work on the two global emergencies we’re talking about today, before it is too late” said Giuliano Pisapia in his speech named “Urban Food Policy Pact: The commitment of Mayors for a Sustainable and Equitable Global Food System”.
“In Milan, we launched a lot of big and small projects that today represent a real change towards a sustainable development and the protection of human dignity. Together with Vienna, we are the first european city above one million inhabitants for separated collection of waste. We’re fighting food waste: exceeding food is brought to charitable canteens”.
“This meeting has strenghtened the Mayor’s commitment  to Milan Urban Food Policy Pact: the first pact about food policies, for the right to healthy nutrition and against any waste.”added Pisapia. “The signed document, on 16th october will be given to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, at Expo 2015 on the occasion of the World Food Day. This is Milan’s concrete commitment. Together with other mayors and other cities our commitment will be stronger, because together we can reach any goal”.