“Pacific countries and climate activists are calling for an overhaul of how the world tackles climate change, after this month's round of UN negotiations ended in failure.
“The outcome of the 25th iteration of the talks, known as COP, has been widely panned, with a small bloc of big emitting countries blocking any progress towards the Paris Agreement.
“It was also the latest blow for Australia's so-called 'Pacific step up', with Canberra's stance at the talks admonished by Pacific leaders.
“Negotiators in Madrid tried to iron out the final rules of 2015's UN Paris Agreement, to agree on greater ambition to tackle climate change.
“But they couldn't even do that. The final declaration was saturated in weak diplomatic language: an "urgent need" to reduce emissions "in line" with the Paris Agreement.
“Tina Stege, the climate envoy for the Marshall Islands and a leader of the High Ambition Coalition, said the whole outcome was weak.
"It was an exhausting process, it was for me personally quite emotional, you're there working as hard as you can to push for more ambition, to push for a world in which your country continues to exist - the place you know and you've grown up in continues to be a place you can go home to."
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