In November 2025, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was banned from Venice for 48 hours following a protest in which she and other activists dyed the city’s waterways green. The protest was planned by Extinct Rebellion, an environmental group based in the UK that focuses on non-violent civil disobedience. This was done to call for stronger climate action in the wake of the outcomes of the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belem, Brazil, specifically how the conference struggled to agree on phasing out fossil fuels. In the conference attended by almost all countries, progress to start omitting the use of fossil fuels more significantly was discussed, but there ended up being no commitment to develop a clear roadmap of how this was going to happen.
In the protest, the activists dropped non-toxic environmental dye into multiple canals and fountains in Venice and 9 other Italian cities, transforming the originally infamous, murky green canals into vibrant, neon green colours. The city is predicted to be greatly impacted by climate change and has been targeted by environmental activists and protests throughout the years. A banner was hung from Venice’s Rialto Bridge reading “Stop Ecocide” to spotlight the ‘massive effects of climate collapse’.
At the core of the rebellion was a theatrical demonstration. The activists dressed in red and their faces were veiled when they walked through crowds of confused tourists. This was a mock funeral procession that symbolized the ‘death’ of accountability and action of the COP30 delegates. An activist representative from Extinct Rebellion remarked that the protest targeted Italy because it has consistently been the country blocking the most ambitious proposals in the climate change conferences.
Such an act was not warmly welcomed by the Venetian government, as they condemned it as extremely disrespectful, with the regional governor stating online that ‘vandalism does not protect the environment’. As a result, Thunberg and the 35 other activists part of the protest were fined $172 each and were banned from Venice for 48 hours.
However, the protest did achieve its main goal of raising awareness within the media. It brought significant attention to the problems that Venice has been facing due to climate change, with some scientists even predicting that the city would be underwater by 2100 due to rising sea levels. In recent years, there have been more and more actions where climate activists switch out traditional protests for more daring stunts like this one, as it draws attention from more people. These incidents pose a serious question: When does disruptive symbolism become a necessary tool for change? Will these demonstrations provoke the government to take action? The green in the canals will wash away eventually, but the conversations it forced are certainly going to carry on.
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