Protecting mountain ecosystems means strengthening the resilience of local areas, securing vital resources and reducing societies’ vulnerability to climate change.
The ‘Un Grado e Mezzo’ Festival was created to raise public awareness, particularly among younger generations, of the climate crisis and environmental sustainability.
The name itself refers to the objective of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, a critical threshold for avoiding catastrophic climate consequences.
Mountains are much more than just a landscape: they are sentinels that react quickly and visibly to the changes taking place, making transformations evident that occur more slowly elsewhere. They are fundamental pillars of our well-being: they safeguard the balance between the environment, natural resources and human life.
Protecting mountain ecosystems means safeguarding freshwater, biodiversity, the climate and local economies. When mountain systems degrade, the risks to mountain and downstream communities increase: water scarcity, more frequent extreme events, and the loss of essential ecosystem services.
Since its very first edition, the Festival has not only been a call to action, guided by scientific data, towards a more sustainable and less environmentally damaging future: it is also an invitation to rethink our relationship with the environment. It is an opportunity to develop a new awareness, capable of transforming everyday choices into concrete steps towards change, because every action – whether individual or collective – can truly make a difference.
Torino, Bardonecchia, Oulx