The Italian model of environmental conservatism: from roots to innovation
Valentina Colucci Fabrizio shares her views on green conservatism in Italy.
Note from Shared Ground: This article was written by Valentina Colucci Fabrizio, a public affairs specialist and a leading civil society leader on environment and sustainability related issues. Valentina is an essential part of a team of dedicated ecologists with whom we work to propose an agenda for the environment for Italy’s center right. As we start the new year, we asked her to tell us how she saw this “green conservatism” in the specific context of her country, with the government of Giorgia Meloni soon celebrating three and a half years in office and therefore looking at elections in the near future. Here is her take on what an Italian Environmental Conservatism could look like.
The Italian Model of Environmental Conservatism: from roots to innovation
For too long, the debate on environmental protection and preservation has been perceived as an ideological battlefield. The dispute has been dominated by a Manichean vision, far removed from the need to analyse the real ecological balance of local territories, with all their specificities and traditions.
Fortunately, there exists a uniquely Italian model of environmentalism that does not spring from metropolitan “visions”, but from the heart of our villages and the roots of our history. As the Prime Minister, the Hon. Giorgia Meloni, recalled, “there is no environmentalist more convinced than a conservative,” who possesses the instinct to safeguard the environment as part of their inherent human character. This is Green Conservatism: a vision that does not view nature as a bureaucratic abstraction, but as the “home of our fathers” to be preserved and improved for future generations.
The beating heart of this model lies in the concept of oikophilia, a term championed by Roger Scruton to describe the love of one’s home. Unlike global environmentalism, which often loses touch with the local dimension, the conservative loves the environment because it is the face of their community.
This vision intertwines with Pope Francis’s integral ecology: the protection of nature cannot be separated from the defence of humanity. It is an approach that rejects both predatory human dominance and the idea of man as a parasite on the planet, seeing him instead as its most precious custodian.
Contrary to common clichés, it was exponents of European conservatism who led environmental awareness long before the left. Margaret Thatcher was the first leader of a major economy to sound the alarm on climate change at the United Nations in 1989, defining the environmental challenge as a turning point in human affairs comparable to the splitting of the atom.
In Italy, this legacy was taken up by Altero Matteoli, the minister who introduced the most significant international agreements on climate and pollution. Matteoli demonstrated that environmental protection can be an opportunity for growth rather than a constraint on development, applying rigour and pragmatism while avoiding both denialist suggestions and apocalyptic sensationalism.
In Italy, nature is almost always a landscape: the millenary encounter between the hand of man and the profile of gentle hills and seas. Protecting them means defending national identity against global homogenisation. In this perspective, the farmer is the “first environmentalist”: the one who patrols the land, prevents hydrogeological instability, and preserves biodiversity against industrial monocultures and food adulteration.
Today, in 2026, the challenge is to transform environmental protection into a driver for growth. The European Green Deal, while starting from agreeable premises, has often translated into punitive measures for industries and a waste of economic and intellectual resources, to the total advantage of foreign technologies.
European conservatives now have the opportunity to lead the transition towards a new model through:
“Made in Europe” Innovation: Replacing “prosperous degrowth” with cutting-edge technological solutions for water management, energy security, and protection against extreme weather events.
Geopolitical Pragmatism: Recognising that the defence of the environment is linked to the stability of populations and the security of urban life.
Competitiveness: Leveraging the environmental crisis as a tool to regain global competitiveness, integrating power grids and enhancing transport.
“Green” must not be a nostalgic invitation to maintain the status quo—or perhaps to dismantle it, as advocated by radical environmentalism—but rather a strategic project for the future.
“Green conservatism” means caring for creation and passing on the inherited beauty, mindful that true ecology is not that which imposes prohibitions from above, but that which stems from the indissoluble bond between a people, their land, and all the other living organisms that inhabit it.
To achieve this, we must move from the (il)logic of bans and restrictions to the search for new environmental paradigms based on scientific innovation, thus transforming the environmental challenge into a great project of rebirth for Italy and for Europe.
Valentina Colucci Fabrizio
An expert in institutional relations management, political liaison, and legislative work related to ministerial delegations, Valentina Colucci Fabrizio has dedicated herself over the years to deepening her knowledge of environmental and sustainability issues. She has held various roles over the course of her 15-year career, including Public Affairs Director in the private sector, as well as in the government sector as Legal Advisor or Head of Secretariat in various Direct Collaboration Offices of numerous Ministers, including Vittorio Colao, Corrado Clini, and many others.