In the first legal action of its kind in Italy, climate activists submitted a lawsuit to Rome’s civil court on Saturday denouncing government inaction on the climate crisis.

The 203 plaintiffs, which included environmental organisations, Italian citizens, foreign residents and activists from Italy’s Fridays for Future movement, are asking the court to order the State to adopt more ambitious climate policies and emission reduction targets.

READ ALSO: Italy postpones plastic tax again due to Covid-19 pandemic

Today, A Sud and the #GiudizioUniversale campaign promoters have launched the first #climatelitigation against the Italian state. Over 200 plaintiffs are asking the court to order the State to increase its emissions' reduction ambition to protect the rights of its inhabitants. pic.twitter.com/nSMHsh9bNu

— A Sud Onlus (@ASudOnlus) June 5, 2021

After being appointed prime minister in February, Mario Draghi created a “superministry” to ensure a transition to a green energy drives recovery and makes use of European Union funds.

“Ours will be an ecological government,” Draghi said in his first cabinet meeting.

But campaigners criticised the 750-billion-euro pandemic Recovery Fund, which included the aim of Italy becoming “carbon free” by 2050, for not being ambitious enough.

In its latest decree containing economic support measures, the Decreto Sostegni bis, Draghi’s government delayed a long-planned plastic tax again citing economic pressure.

READ ALSO:  What is Italy doing about the shocking level of plastic pollution on its coastline?

The tax, which was created in 2020 and intended to promote a reduction in the production and consumption of single-use plastics, has been delayed again with the government citing economic factors connected to the pandemic.

The tax on plastic was scheduled to come into force on July 1st this year but has.faced a series of delays

The Italian governmen said it was delaying the ecological measure, “in consideration of the contingent and difficult conditions of the economic sectors, which would be burdened by the tax, in connection with the continuation of the epidemiological emergency from Covid-19”.