Climate protestors poured charcoal into Rome's famed Trevi Fountain and turned the water black. Now 80,000 gallons of water needs to be replaced.

• Climate protestors blackened the water in Rome's Trevi Fountain on Sunday.
• But at least 79,300 gallons of fountain water was wasted during the protest, Rome's mayor said.

Climate protesters poured charcoal into Rome's famous Trevi Fountain and blackened the water, and now at least 79,300 gallons of water needs to be replaced to restore the monument.

The eight members of Ultima Generazione, or Last Generation, poured vegetable charcoal into the fountain's water on Sunday, calling for the government to stop aiding fossil fuel organizations.

The protestors climbed into the water with large orange banners saying: "Let's not pay for fossil." They also shouted about how the country is "dying," per The Guardian.

The protesters managed to stage their demonstration for about 15 minutes before police waded into the fountain and removed them, per a Sunday news release posted on Ultima Generazione's website. People were seen taking pictures of the scene, and some onlookers shouted insults at the protesters, per The Guardian.

Roberto Gualtieri, Rome's mayor, tweeted on Sunday that the protest led to the "waste of 300,000 liters of water."

In another tweet, he said that the fountain was "expensive and complex to restore," and called for activists to "compete on a confrontational terrain without putting the monuments at risk."

The group's demonstration followed a week of intense floods in northern Italy, which killed at least 13 people and displaced thousands, per The Washington Post. More than 20 rivers overflowed after the region was battered by a spate of extreme rainfall, per the BBC.

The climate protesters say they haven't caused any damage to the Trevi Fountain — a big tourist draw for the city that fills up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in coins every year.

"Even today, the vegetable charcoal and the bodies of terrified citizens have not damaged any monument, while the count of the damage to the cultural heritage in Emilia-Romagna devastated by the flood has already begun," the news release wrote.

Members of Ultima Generazione held other similar demonstrations in Rome past two weeks. Some group members were seen on Wednesday holding banners while dangling over a busy road suspended from a bridge in the city. On May 6, the group also poured charcoal into the Fiumi Fountain at the Piazza Navona.

Italy's conservative government has been pushing back on green initiatives. It reversed a 2021 pledge to stop financing fossil fuel projects, and is now opposed to a European Union directive to make new buildings more energy efficient, per reports from Reuters.

Ultima Generazione and Rome's police department did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.