Tens of thousands of protesters take part in Brussels climate change march as UN Summit of 200 nations gets underway in Poland
- Belgian police said some 65,000 people participated in the ‘Claim the Climate’ demonstration on Sunday
- Demonstrators marched through Brussels with banners stating ‘There is no planet B’ and ‘Save our planet’
- It came as the COP24 summit began a day early in Katowice, Poland due to high pressure to make progress
Tens of thousands of protesters took part in a climate change march on Brussels as a United Nations summit on keeping global warming in check began in Poland.
Belgian police said some 65,000 people participated in the ‘Claim the Climate’ demonstration on Sunday.
Protesters marched through the Belgian capital near to the European Union headquarters with banners bearing slogans including ‘There is no planet B’ and ‘Climate First, Politics Second’.
At least 65,000 protesters participated in the ‘Claim the Climate’ demonstration in Brussels, Belgium throughout Sunday
The peaceful protest saw hundreds of thousands of people march through the quarter of the city that houses the European Union headquarters
People held banners bearing slogans including ‘Save our planet, save our future’ and ‘sick of pollution’ as they marched
One man dressed up as a penguin holding a sign that read ‘I need my fridge’ and another group carried a giant inflatable replica of the globe as they marched.
The organisers of the protest called for ambitious climate policies to limit global warming to one-and-a-half degrees Celsius in line with goals set by the Paris Agreement in 2015.
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Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel called the march ‘a formidable success’ and promised to defend the ‘ambitious targets’ at the two-week-long COP24 conference which began in Katowice, Poland on Sunday.
Key talks began a day earlier than expected, with four senior figures behind the efforts to limit climate change warning that the Earth is now ‘at a crossroads’, the BBC reported.
Others held placards alluding to an apparent rapid decline in the bee population while others protested pollution in the city
The organisers called for ambitious climate policies to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in line with goals set by the Paris Agreement in 2015
Other protesters, including young children, held colourful banners throughout the march. One man even dressed up as a penguin with a sign saying ‘I need my fridge’
Belgium’s liberal Prime Minister Charles Michel called the march ‘a formidable success’ and promised to defend ‘ambitious targets’ at a two week-long UN summit in the Polish city of Katowice
The four former UN climate talk presidents called for action when the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) prematurely convened.
A statement issued by Frank Bainimarama of Fiji, Salaheddine Mezouar of Morocco, Laurent Fabius of France and Manuel Pulgar Vidal of Peru said: ‘Decisive action in the next two years will be crucial.
‘What ministers and other leaders say and do in Katowice at COP24 will help determine efforts for years to come and either bring the world closer to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement – including protecting those most vulnerable to climate change – or push action further down the road.
Key talks began a day early on Sunday, with four senior figures behind efforts to limit climate change warning that the Earth is now ‘at a crossroads’
The former UN climate talk presidents called for action when the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) convened a day early
One man even built a wooden structure around a model of the Eiffel Tower he placed on his bicycle helmet during the march
Another pair wearing hi-vis vests held a sign bearing the slogan ‘There are no jobs jobs jobs on a dead planet’ on Sunday
‘Any delay will only make it harder and more expensive to respond to climate change.’
Negotiators at the conference, which is said to be the most crucial on climate change since the 2015 Paris Agreement, decided to open talks ahead of Monday because they are under pressure to make progress.
Some 29 heads of state and government are due to give statements over the two-week-long summit of 200 nations.
Some young protesters even wrote ‘+ chaud’, translating to ‘+ hot’, on their faces in red pen as they marched in the city
Negotiators at the COP24 conference decided to open talks ahead of Monday because they are under pressure to make progress
This Conference of the Parties is the first to be held since an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C was released in October
A group of three took part in the march wearing polar bear costumes, which gathered them attention from other protesters
This is less than the number who attended the Paris Agreement talks in 2015 – but for the EU and China, the meeting is crucial to proving international co-operation is possible in the age of President Trump.
Sir David Attenborough will represent millions of people across the world who are affected by climate change when he takes the ‘people’s seat’ at the conference.
He will give a speech to politicians on the opening day of the summit, with takes place from December 2 to December 14, made up of comments submitted by the public.
Some 29 heads of state and government are due to give statements over the two-week-long COP24 summit of 200 nations
It is likely much of the conference will be focused on detailing exactly how the conditions of the 2015 Paris Agreement will work
People hold a banner reading ‘Save our planet, save our future’ during the ‘Claim the Climate’ march to raise awareness for climate change
It is likely much of the conference will be focused on finalising exactly how the conditions of the Paris Agreement will work when it becomes operational in 2020.
The agreement, signed by 195 UNFCCC members, has a central aim to ‘strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change’ by keeping a temperature increase this century below two degrees.
It also firmed plans to pursue efforts to limit the temperature rise even further to just one-and-a-half degrees Celsius.
The COP24 summit is the first Conference of the Parties since an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report detailed how governments would need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 45 per cent by 2030 to reach this goal.
Protesters carry colourful placards as they take part in a demonstration on Climate Change in Brussels, Belgium on Sunday
One man carried a sign bearing the message ‘make biodiversity great again and no climate change will remain’ as he marched
Two young girls took part in the demonstration holding a cardboard banner that read ‘If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem’
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