TEHRAN, Mar 11 - Over 35,000 protesters gathered in Amsterdam despite poor weather conditions on Sunday, urging the Netherlands’ government to take stronger action against climate change.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The march was organized by several civil organizations including the environmental organization Milieudefensie.
"Our government must opt for real solutions for families, young people, small entrepreneurs, employees and farmers," Milieudefensie said on its website.
"The big polluters have to pay fairly...The climate is not waiting."
Banners carried throughout the demonstration shared a range of messages, challenging the government to "change the system," or "down with borders, up with forests," and one that simply read: "help." Some protesters also held up signs reading “less meat, less heat” and “eat your veggies”.
The protest came after an environmental research institute said the Netherlands wasn't doing enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The Dutch Environment Assessment Agency said the target of reducing emissions by 25 percent from 19-90 levels by 20-20 was out of reach.
In an attempt to curb the emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere, world countries, including initially the United States, in December 2015 adopted the Paris Climate Accord — a landmark deal to tackle climate change — following high-level talks.
However, US President Donald Trump later unilaterally withdrew America from that deal. Trump has long questioned the factuality of climate change altogether. He has formerly called the natural phenomenon a “hoax.”
The Paris agreement, to which many world countries are still committed, aims to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius over the next few decades.
Source: Press TV