AFP :
Tens of thousands of protesters, primarily in Europe and Asia, hit the streets on Friday to make a fresh call for action against global warming, hoping to raise pressure on world leaders days before a UN climate summit.
Carrying signs that read “One planet, one fight” and “The sea is rising, so must we”, thousands flocked to Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate for the latest “Fridays for Future” protest inspired by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg. In total, about 630,000 people demonstrated across more than 500 cities in Germany, the Fridays for Future movement said.
In Hamburg alone, some 30,000 mainly young people gathered and another 17,000 congregated in Munich to voice alarm at rising temperatures, police said.
Thunberg, meanwhile, was on a boat sailing across the Atlantic, but tweeted a photo of herself holding a sign that said “School strike for climate.”
Rallies took place across Europe, although on a smaller scale than during September’s wave of “climate strikes” when organisers said some four million people filled city streets around the world.
Approximately 1,700 turned out in Madrid, the host city of next week’s 12-day COP25 conference, which aims to encourage governments to increase their commitments to cut emissions and combat climate change.
In France, climate activists focused their anger on the “Black Friday” sales bonanza with protesters blocking a distribution centre of online retail giant Amazon outside Paris and others near Lyon and Lille.
Protesters in Paris also formed a human chain at La Defense shopping mall that prevented people from reaching stores, to highlight the climate costs of consumerism.
The Dutch branch of “Fridays for Future” said demos were taking place in around 15 cities, culminating in an evening march in Amsterdam where protesters would observe a moment’s silence for victims of the climate crisis.
In Delhi, about 50 school and college students marched to the environment ministry in the world’s most polluted capital, carrying placards and chanting slogans demanding that the government declare a climate emergency.
“This is about doing something that you believe in,” said 23-year-old Saumya Chowdhury. “We want the government to acknowledge this and have a conversation on this issue with people.”
India is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases and has 14 of the 15 most polluted cities in the world, according to a UN study.
Some 200 nations are meeting in the Spanish capital from Monday for talks on finalising the “rulebook” for the 2015 Paris climate treaty, which becomes operational in 2021.
Scientists have warned that efforts to cap warming to 1.5 Celsius are failing and that carbon emissions-which are on the rise-would need to fall 7.6 percent a year to meet the target.
The United Nations has reported that greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, hit a record high last year.
