Tens of thousands of people joined one of the biggest global days of climate change activism on Sunday, from Sydney to Berlin, to put pressure on world leaders to unite in fighting global warming at a summit in Paris.
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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, actresses Emma Thompson and Vanessa Redgrave, singers Thom Yorke and Charlotte Church, Green, and the Green MP Caroline Lucas all took part.
World leaders from more than 50 countries are meeting in Paris for United Nations talks to secure strong deals to curb rising temperatures and shift the world to 100% renewable energy.
Almost 2,500 events are taking place around the world this weekend, with London’s expected to be the biggest.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in central Paris and formed a human chain along the route of a long-planned protest march that was banned by the French government in a security crackdown following the November 13 Paris attacks.
Mr Corbyn told crowds that the issues facing the world are “pollution, climate change, inequality, environmental refugees, war refugees and resource wars” and called for these issues to be addressed in Paris.
Speaking to reporters, she said: “This [the march and summit] are just the beginning but it’s got to be an end because we’ve got to achieve the end”.
“Those who did the least to cause the problem are feeling the impacts first and hardest, like our sisters and brothers in the Pacific”, said Judee Adams, a community campaigner with Oxfam.
“My family are reindeer herders, our reality is that climate change isn’t something coming in the future, right here and now we are totally affected by it”.
There does appear to be political momentum to reach some kind of meaningful agreement to tackle global warming, though the risk is it’s overshadowed by groups with another agenda.
The acclaimed star is a prominent environmentalist and spokesperson for Greenpeace.
Environmental groups organised a demonstration in Frankfurt, Germany. The talks among the 196 nations represented in France will take place in the hottest year since such records have been kept, amid ongoing signs around the world of climate change’s effects on the air and oceans.
“This is not civil disobedience”, she said. If I don’t do something about this then there is nothing else that is more important.
Climate change marches were called off after the terror attacks that killed 129 in the French capital city weeks prior.
Friends Of The Earth chief executive Craig Bennett, who attended today’s march in London, said the huge numbers that turned out in the capital and elsewhere around the world sent a signal that governments cannot ignore.
“In 10 years” time our children are going to say, “Mum, did you know about this?” Among them Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore, who tweeted it was the largest climate march ever held in the harbour city.
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Policemen fight with activists during a protest ahead of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference at the place de la Republique, in Paris, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015.
