MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th December, 2019) Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future climate change activists staged a protest in Madrid in which they blocked the crossroad near the IFEMA exhibition center where the 25th UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) was taking place, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene on Friday.
According to the activists, the conference failed to address the agenda, which was focused on the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement, while the appeals of the young people who participated as observers and protested on the streets were not heard.
"What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now!" the activists chanted.
They also held posters displaying slogans such as "Climate change is real � act now" and "Bad politicians rule the planet."
"We are holding this protest because the necessary measures have not been taken, the issues that concern us were not discussed at the conference, this cannot go on," one of the activists told Sputnik.
Media also reported that about 15,000 representatives of environmental and social organizations gathered in a parallel Social Summit for Climate Action at the Complutense University of Madrid. They have already concluded that the COP 25 failed to meet its goals in implementing the Paris climate deal.
Earlier this week, Spanish Economy and Enterprise Minister Nadia Calvino said that so-called Article 6, which outlines rules for a new carbon trade system under the Paris Agreement, remained a stumbling block for the deal to become fully operational.
The Paris Agreement, which was signed in 2015, aims to bring all nations together under the common cause of combating climate change. Its most well-known premise is to try to keep the rise of global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and to ideally pursue an even lower limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The treaty has no compliance mechanism.
