Reframing Climate Protests As Public Order: The Criminalization of Environmental Activism in Italy

Despite the agreements reached at the United Nations Framework Conferences on Climate Change and the decades-long efforts of conventional environmental movements, the climate crisis caused by human activity and environmental exploitation persists. In this context, the voices of new movements of young activists promoting sustainable ways of living should be heard and supported.

Nevertheless, at least in Western democracies, these movements fail to have a significant impact on political decisions. Indeed, their forms of protest, which are often unconventional and occasionally at odds with the law, elicit negative responses from the general public and punitive actions from police and judicial bodies.

Consequently, social issues pertaining to climate change and environmental justice are reframed as matters of security and public order. Furthermore, forms of dissent against production and consumption practices that contribute to ecological disorganisation are increasingly criminalised through the broadening and intensification of criminal sanctions.

The paper addresses this phenomenon, beginning with an examination of the Italian context and proceeding with a comparative analysis of similar jurisdictions. In Italy, a campaign of criminalisation of environmentalist protest has been conducted for several years by the news media, political forces and, more recently, the judicial system. Firstly, the paper analyses the protest actions undertaken by Italian activists associated to the Last Generation climate movement. It then treats the responses these actions have generated, both in public discourse and within the penal system, with a focus on recent amendments to the penal code and the trials held against activists.

The paper proposes to trace the trajectories of the mediatic-judicial circus that limit the right to manifest and delegitimise arguments against the treadmill of production in favour of a civilisational transformation aimed at avoiding the environmental catastrophe.