Tens of thousands join climate change marches in New York

London and across the globe 

TENS of thousands of people marched across the globe on Sunday, joined by celebrities and political leaders to demand urgent action to stem climate change. 

 

Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, US former vice president turned advocate Al Gore, UN chief Ban Ki-moon and New York mayor Bill de Blasio marched down New York’s Sixth Avenue in what organisers hoped would be the largest such protest in history.

In London, an estimated 40,000 people paraded past Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament, including British actor Emma Thompson who likened the threat posed by climate change to a Martian invasion.

They were the largest of around 2,500 events around the world that included marches in Sydney and Cairns.

The marches were taking place ahead of a climate change summit hosted by Ban Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly

Elderly protesters, leaning on walking sticks and sitting in wheelchairs, joined young parents with children in push chairs, adults in fancy dress and community groups from all over the world in New York to march for change.

“It’s very important. Our climate is killing us,” Coula Farris, an 88-year-old New Yorker told AFP. “Young people deserve a better world and I’m very lucky I can walk,” she said.

There were chants of “we are idle not more” and “hey, hey, ho, ho, fossil fuels have got to go,” as the colourful march made its way down Sixth Avenue with giant floats, balloons and banners with slogans such as “Urgent, Save our Planet.” Ban, wearing a baseball cap and a T-shirt with the words “I’m for Climate Action,” praised de Blasio for announcing Sunday that New York would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent over 2005 levels by 2050.

The UN secretary-general walked nine blocks in the parade with Gore, de Blasio, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and French Ecology Minister Segolene Royal, who wore a green suit and high heels.

“Our mission is to make this a decisive moment, a turning point moment and I felt today that I was seeing history starting to be made,” de Blasio said.

In Paris, nearly 5,000 people protested, according to police estimates, many on bikes, with banners that read “Climate in danger” or “World leaders, act!” “Before we could say we didn’t know. Now we know. Climate change is already underway,” Nicolas Hulot, the president’s special envoy for the protection of the planet, told the crowd in central Paris.

Hundreds more protested in several other cities in France, including up to 700 in the south-western city of Bordeaux.

In Madrid, hundreds gathered in front of the environment ministry, brandishing signs with slogans including “There’s no Planet B,” “Change your life, not your climate,” and “Our climate, your decision.” In Cairns, Australia, where finance ministers from the G20 nations were meeting, more than 100 people wearing green paper hearts around their necks gathered outside the venue.