Feature: Italians join Global Climate March with rally in Rome

Tens of thousands of Italians joined the Global Climate March 2015 with a rally in Rome on Sunday, urging world leaders to act courageously against climate change.

Marches were held in several cities around the world, in what appeared to be one of the biggest demonstrations on global warming ever arranged.

In the Italian capital, demonstrators held placards reading: "Stop fossil sources", "There is no Planet B", and "#COP21: a true deal to change".

Some 15,000 to 20,000 people attended the rally, according to local media and organizers.

The long march cut through the historical heart of Rome, as climate activists chanted slogans and danced along the way with the help of a music band of street performers.

Meanwhile, leaders from nearly 150 countries were gathering in Paris for a 12-day-long UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP21, which is due to deliver a long-term agreement on global warming and carbon emission cut to be implemented from 2020.

"I would like the summit to deliver a legally binding deal, and clear sanctioning mechanisms for those countries not complying with the agreed targets," Francesca Mingro from Rome told Xinhua.

As a member of non-governmental group "Italian Climate Network", the 22-year-old student will move to Paris with fellow volunteers to keep a close eye on the summit's works.

"So far, each country is pledging its own voluntary targets and there is no binding mechanism expected. They should do more: science has clearly showed us we are not doing enough".

In the young activist's home country Italy, there has been an increasing number of events linked to extreme weather in recent years. Environmental groups have warned its natural resources were being heavily affected by climate change.

For example, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report show glaciers in the Italian Alps have lost an estimated 40 percent of their total area in the past three decades as a result of climate change.

Those taking to the streets in Rome seemed very aware of risks connected to climate issue.

"I teach a course on climate change at the Sapienza University here, and I am not very hopeful the Paris summit will give us a real project to reverse global warming," Marcello Vitale told Xinhua.

"We need clear binding commitments and also the necessary resources to implement them. But it seems to me economic interests within energy policies are still too strong to allow such a change," he added.

Marching hand in hand with his young daughter, the professor said his greatest source of concern was the current unpredictability of weather.

"This is a subject of my studies, and I see the frequency of extreme weather events has visibly increased at global level, it is really too high," he stressed.

Security was quite visible during the march, since Italy, like many other European countries, raised its terror alert in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people on November 13.

Many flags advocating peace were raised along with banners of environmental groups and posters against greenhouse gases, oil drillings, and those development policies seen as harmful to the planet.

For example, activists of Italy's main environmental association Legambiente held a large banner reading "No to terrorism, yes to peace".

Right behind them, a group of students made their way adding their chants to the rally's cry.

"What I ask from the world leaders in Paris is to have courage," Francesca Tonolo, a chemistry student from the north-eastern city of Padua, told Xinhua.

"They have to acknowledge clearly the situation is dire and there is a need of concrete answers".

The student said she was volunteering with local groups in Padua to oppose current policies seen as detrimental to the environment of her city, which ranked as one of the most air-polluted in Europe according to a study from Legambiente.

"Yet, I feel completely powerless concerning the Global Summit in Paris," she stressed.

"I fear world leaders will not listen to our request of a deep change in our development model, nor will they consider the proposals and projects many groups here can contribute". Endit