MADRID, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that Madrid will be "the world capital of the fight against the climate emergency" in his speech at the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 here on Monday.
Spain agreed to host the event at short notice after Chile stepped down as host due to social unrest. Madrid's IFEMA exhibition center has been prepared in under a month to host some 30,000 people expected to attend COP25.
"Madrid will be for a few days the world capital of the fight against the climate emergency and it will also be the center of multilateralism that needs to be strengthened," Sanchez said.
"Madrid wants to be the capital of dialogue between nations united against a common enemy for all humanity," he said.
Sanchez highlighted the presence of young climate activists and action groups at COP25, saying they will "not be just an appendix to this summit, they are key actors in the challenge we have in front of us."
He stressed that although Spain was hosting COP25, Chile retains the presidency of the event and thus "the success of this meeting will be the success of all of us, and above all, Chile's success."
The Spanish leader said that in 2019 "any progress that is not sustainable doesn't deserve to be called progress," and commented that "we have scientific certainty that man is behind the damage caused to the fragile balance that allows life on our planet."
He called for "courage and determination" and "above all action" to halt global warming.
