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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Environment
Claire Phipps in Sydney, Adam Vaughan in London and Oliver Milman in New York

Global climate march 2015: hundreds of thousands march around the world – as it happened

Climate protesters clash with police as activists defy Paris ban

The day in climate change rallies

As the last of the day’s climate marches get underway in the western reaches of North America, we will wrap up our live coverage of what has been a record-breaking day in global activism ahead of the COP21 talks in Paris tomorrow.

  • More than 600,000 people have taken to the streets in 175 countries around the world to call for a strong deal in Paris that will see a swift transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
  • Melbourne and London led the way, with 60,000 people and 50,000 people, respectively, joining marches. Figures including Thom Yorke, Emma Thompson, Charlotte Church and Jeremy Corbyn attended the London gathering.
  • Pope Francis and Ban Ki-moon were among the people to donate 10,000 pairs of shoes to an installation in Paris to represent people who could not march because of orders imposed by authorities after the 13 November attacks.
  • Protests in Paris turned violent, with police arresting around 200 people after clashes with anti-capitalists and anarchists. Some activists allegedly hurled candles and bouquets from memorials to victims of the 13 November attacks. Organisers of the climate marches have condemned the violence.
  • Barack Obama boarded a flight to Paris, where he said he will reaffirm the US’s support for France in the face of “barbaric attacks” as well as forge a deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avert the worst ravages of climate change.

Climate talks will go on until 11 December, amid optimism among negotiators that an effective agreement can be reached. Let’s hope Paris can finish the year on a positive note.

Updated

Climate events are now underway on the west coast, with people gathering in Los Angeles and Vancouver.

There are tentative estimates of 25,000 people attending the climate march in Ottawa. Organisers expect more than 600,000 people worldwide have attended marches calling for fossil fuels to remain in the ground and for nations to shift to 100% renewable energy use.

May Boeve, executive director of organiser 350.org, said: “The scale and diversity of today’s events are astounding. Worldwide people are ready for the end of fossil fuels and the dawn of renewables. World leaders can no longer ignore this urgent call for action as the climate crisis continues to unfold. It is time for them to stand on the right side of history.”

The rather sedate gatherings taking place in the US and Canada are in contrast to the clashes between protestors and police seen in Paris earlier this week.

French newspaper La Figaro has reported that some activists hurled objects from the memorial to those killed in the 13 November attacks at police. Candles and bouquets were launched in the direction of police, the newspaper said.

Others responded, as “many people managed to form a human chain around the memorial to protect flowers and candles”, La Figaro reported (in French).

350.org, one of the major organisers of the climate marches, said that the clashes had violated a “nonviolent pledge that every group involved in the climate coalition here in France has agreed to.” It has distanced itself from violence but said it opposes any attempt to “unnecessarily clamp down on civil liberties.”

The official climate march in Paris was banned due to security concerns. Around 200 people were arrested during the subsequent clashes, with police using tear gas to disperse protestors.

Climate activists in the US and Canada haven’t been able to muster the kinds of numbers seen at marches in Europe and Australia (in particular), nor is there the celebrity impact of, say, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke DJ-ing for the crowd, as happened in London earlier.

But hundreds of people have shown their support for a shift to renewables across North America, including the White House, New York and the Texas capitol building in Austin.

Ottawa and Vancouver will vie for the largest turnout of climate marchers in Canada. Several thousand people have gathered in Ottawa to hear environmentalist David Suzuki demand the “necessity” of a fully renewable energy system.

Prior to the march, Suzuki said he was glad to see the back of Stephen Harper, the pro fossil fuels former prime minister who was defeated earlier this month by Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party.

“We’ve had nine-and-a-half years of a Harper government that has basically not confronted the issue of climate change,” Suzuki said. “I believe that it is wilful blindness.”

Back in New York, a series of speakers have called for a greater effort to move towards 100% renewable energy. Among them is Bill Nye, aka the science guy.

Organisers have announced that early estimates show the global climate marches are the largest ever held, with a likely total of more than 600,000 people.

Around 570,000 people have already marched in 2,300 events in 175 countries around the world. Further marches in Vancouver, Ottawa and Mexico City are anticipated to push this number over 600,000, more than double the record set in last year’s series of marches.

All this was achieved despite the largest march, in Paris, called off due to security concerns. Instead, thousands of shoes were laid out to symbolise the missing protesters.

According to organisers Avaaz, the largest marches took place in Melbourne (60,000 people) and London (50,000 people).

Singer and activist Charlotte Church was one of those to attend the London march. She spoke to my colleague James Randerson about why she turned up - you can listen to their conversation here.

Climate marches have started in Chicago, where participants were asked to paint the world on their faces, and Ottawa. Climate activists in Canada and the US were recently buoyed by Barack Obama’s blocking of the controversial Keystone pipeline project.

There will be no repeat of the enormous climate march that took place in New York in September last year. That gathering of more than 400,000 people featured plenty of stardust - UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon, former US vice president Al Gore, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio and actors Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio were among the hordes.

Thanksgiving, which happened on Thursday, has somewhat clipped the wings of organisers in the US. There will, however, be events across the country. In New York, de Blasio will be the target, rather than participant, of a protest, with activists marching around City Hall at 2pm to demand greater investment in renewable energy and full divestment from fossil fuels.

Obama’s comments on the Paris talks, posted on Facebook two hours ago, unsurprisingly laments the recent attacks in the French city before delving into the purpose of his trip:

I’m heading to Paris today to join nearly 200 countries for a global conference on climate change. It’s an opportunity to stand in solidarity with our oldest ally, just two weeks removed from the barbaric attacks there, and reaffirm our commitment to protect our people and our way of life from terrorist threats. It’s also an opportunity for the world to stand as one and show that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children.

What makes this gathering different is that more than 180 nations have already submitted plans to reduce the harmful emissions that help cause climate change. And America’s leadership is helping to drive this progress. In fact, our businesses and workers have shown that it’s possible to make progress towards a low-carbon future while creating new jobs and growing the economy. Our economic output is at all-time highs, but our greenhouse gas emissions are down towards 20-year lows.

So what we’re trying to do in Paris is put in place a long-term framework for further emissions reductions - targets set by each nation, but transparent enough to be verified by other nations. And we’ll work to mobilize support to help the most vulnerable countries expand clean energy and adapt to the effects of climate change we can no longer avoid.

I’m optimistic about what we can achieve - because I’ve already seen America take incredible strides these past seven years. And with that - I’ll see you in Paris.

Hello from a crisp New York afternoon as events to mark the start of the Paris climate talks start to unfold in the US and Canada.

US president Barack Obama won’t be in the country to see any of them as he is enroute to Paris for the start of COP21. Obama will attend a series of meetings, opening with Xi Jinping, president of China. The White House hopes the meeting of the leaders of the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases will provide a helpful early shove to proceedings, helping avert the kinds of chaos seen at the Copenhagen talks in 2009.

Obama will also meet French president Francois Hollande, where the threat of terrorism is likely to be a topic of conversation as well as global warming. Afterwards, the US president is expected to sit down with leaders of low-lying island nations that are considered particularly vulnerable to climate change.

Leaders of countries such as Kiribati and the Marshall Islands hope the Paris talks not only provide a firm commitment to capping global temperature increases to just 1.5C but also to ensure the delivery of $100 billion in climate finance to help adaptation. Some island leaders aren’t too hopeful over any of this.

Summary

I’m signing off for now but my colleague in New York, Oliver Milman, will shortly be taking over the live blog reins. Please keep sharing your photos of the marches via Guardian Witness.

Updated

Here’s a lighter video from London, of Charlotte Church singing:

Green group distances itself from Paris clashes

We’ve just posted some video of the protests turning ugly in Paris:

Environmental group 350.org has issued a statement distancing itself from the violent protests:

Starting around 2:30pm, a small group of protesters unaffiliated with the climate movement arrived at Republique and began to clash with the police there, violating the nonviolent pledge that every group involved in the climate coalition here in France has agreed to. Police responded with tear gas and pepper spray. The protest dispersed by around 3:45pm.

Updated

Events on the other side of the Atlantic are underway. Here are a series of photos from Rio de Janeiro, by author Jules Boykoff:

Protesters kettled in Paris by police

I’m still stuck in a corner of the square [Place de la Republique] with about 400 protesters. The space is cramped. About 50mx50m. People are being pulled occasionally from the crowd and dragged into police vans.

People here are angry and frustrated that the police have swept everyone up. Some of them are core anarchists. Others are people just caught up in the police clearing of the square.

“It seems like they are taking us randomly and just waiting for some of us to turn violent,” said one protester who initially wanted to march for the climate.

Police are still sporadically hitting the most confrontational activists with tear gas.

The protesters had a sound system that was pumping out heavy dance music for a while. But police moved in and arrested a bunch of those dancing.

“We are imprisoned, call the police!” They are yelling.

Charlotte Church brought a choir from Wales to perform a song written for the march. She suggested people on the march should name it.

“It’ s an absolute priviledge and honour to march with you today. What we have done here today is stage the biggest climate march in UK history,” she said. Here are the lyrics to the song:

Way before I was born we knew we had learned we should be concerned or we’re doomed

But chose to laugh in this face of an escapable fate...how brave

To pass on the buck to the unborn, how brave

Politics to one little fish means nothing but the opinion of all of us millions must count for something

Despite facts irrefutable it’s business as usual

Updated

Here’s a great gallery of events around the world today, put together by my colleague Eric Hilaire:

Tutu: if leaders don’t take action they will be saying very clearly that they don’t care

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has previously called for people to divest from fossil fuel companies, has issued a statement calling on world leaders in Paris to act on climate change before it’s too late. Here’s an excerpt:

It is an opportunity to address inequality; for powerful people and nations to acknowledge that their environmental wellbeing, their security and sustainability, is dependent on the wellbeing, security and sustainability of others. To acknowledge our inter-dependence, and the strengths and vulnerabilities we share.

If we “carry on as usual”, there may not be another opportunity.

The days of not understanding the disastrous human and environmental consequences of rampant consumerism and greed are gone. Our leaders can no longer claim not to know. If they don’t take action they will be saying very clearly that they don’t care.

Should they grasp the opportunity, and develop a legally binding treaty to mitigate climate change, it will signal the end of the age of reckless consumption, exploitation and greed.

But failing to grasp the nettle will send a direct message of contempt to poorer nations and people, who cannot afford the costs of mitigating the impacts of increasing temperatures. It will trigger unprecedented economic and refugee crises, and dramatically deepen global insecurity.

It’s a simple equation, really. Agree on mechanisms to enforce adherence to environmental justice, or consciously embrace injustice and add fuel to the fire of human division and pain.

We know that the only answer is to reduce carbon emissions, and the only way we can do that is by reducing our dependency on carbon fuels.

Updated

I’ve been talking with actor and Greenpeace supporter Emma Thompson. “Unfortunately we live in a world which is absolutely in the pockets of fossil fuel companies,” she said as we walked through London. Here are some brief clips of the interview:

Updated

Record-breaking 50,000 people at London climate march

Organisers are saying more than 50,000 people have turned out for a march in the UK capital. That’s far more than attended the London ‘Wave’ march in 2009, before the Copenhagen climate summit, and the 27,000 at last year’s London climate march.

Alex Wilks, campaign director at Avaaz, said: “This is the biggest climate march in British history with over 50,000 people marching today in London and thousands more in other cities across Britain. Our footsteps are echoing around the world alongside hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets calling for a transition to 100% clean energy.”

A Met Police spokeswoman told me they would not be commenting on numbers on the march.

Campaign group Avaaz said 20,000 people had marched in Rome.

Updated

Asad Rehman, a fixture at previous climate talks and Friends of the Earth’s senior international climate campaigner, tells the London march:

There is something deeply wrong with our world...the great injustice is that those who are least response for our crisis have to deal with its impacts. We live with a broken economic system that says that black lives don’t matter, poor lives don’t matter....

And it’s people power that is going to defeat this climate crisis. We have the solutions but we just have politicians who lack the political will.

Here are a group of Sámi, an indigenous people in Sweden who say their way of life is threatened by climate change, singing on the stage in London. Footage by James Randerson.

Speaking in London, Friends of the Earth’s new CEO, Craig Bennett, says:

This is a fantastic display of people power with thousands upon thousands taking to the streets to demand urgent action on climate change.

From Australia to Mozambique and the Philippines, as well as here in London, millions of our fellow citizens are urging our leaders to stand up to the global crisis of more floods, storms, droughts and rising seas.

We know the challenge we face, we know the solutions: now is the time to act.

Meanwhile in London, marchers have reached parliament, where a second round of speeches is taking place. Here is the (slightly blurry) view from the stage:

I’m now stuck in a corner of the plaza surrounded by hundreds of police and a few hundred protesters who have been systematically pushed back. No one can get in or out.

The day of action in Paris has completely disintegrated into a stand off between groups of anarchist protesters and riot police. The large crowd who showed up to campaign for a positive outcome at COP21 left long ago.

Police moved into la place de la Republique and kettling those left. About 500 anarchists, including many from the “Black Bloc”, are pelting police with glass bottles. Police responding with flash-bang bombs and tear gas.

Tear gas in Paris

An unauthorised demonstration at Place de la Republique degenerated into violence on Sunday afternoon. Hundreds of riot police sealed off the whole square and the roads around as clashes broke out with protestors.

The protesters began by throwing missiles at police. There were several very large explosions, thought to be fireworks. Police began using tear gas to clear the area that has been a symbolic place of gathering since the Friday 13 November attacks in Paris.

Police have now cleared the square. Still a helicopter overhead and sirens. Many of the flowers and candles left in tribute to the 130 people who died in the attacks have been trampled on and destroyed.

Updated

The Guardian’s Nabeelah Shabbir is near the front of the London march, near musician Charlotte Church. Here are some of her photos of a ‘die-in’ over the impacts of climate change on the developing world.

Here’s a short film from our video team of the marches, including the shoes in Paris.

Paris climate protesters banned but 10,000 shoes remain

Updated

20,000 protesters in Madrid

Organisers are saying that around 20,000 people marched in the Spanish capital.

The future of the world may be decided inside a dozen or more vast, anonymous, rigid white structures on the edge of Paris. The convention centre at Le Bourget airport has been officially declared UN property for the duration of the meeting.

It boasts a mini Eiffel tower constructed of red chairs, the main street is lined with 30 or more plastic animals and the 195 countries’ offices are empty and little is expected to happen until tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile Paris city centre is almost empty of traffic and all public transport has been made free for two days to discourage cars and allow nearly 150 world leaders to whizz around unhindered between bilateral meetings in five star hotels and embassies.

And in the meantime, here some are some photos from James Randerson and Emma Howard on marchers who are staying sunny despite the diabolical weather:

More soon from Paris, where Karl Mathiesen is among those caught up in the teargas used by police after people with an apparently anti-capatalist agenda clashed with police.

From Geneva and Barcelona to Paris and Lyon, and Laikipia in Kenya, here are some of your march photos:

Man in pic = mark Harrington and son zacharie

He says: "we're here because our family can't march in Paris and the impact of climate change will be more significant for our children and we want them to have a voice in that"

On the eve of the opening of COP21, demonstrators are gathered at Place de la Republique in Paris, leaving shoes as a symbol of solidarity with the nearly two million people expected to take part in a march today, but that was stopped for security reasons.

Photo: Sean Hawkey/WCC

200 marchers at the Equator joined the Worldwide march

29 November. This was the first ever climate march in Makassar, a coastal city in eastern Indonesia. Elementary school kids joined the march organised by Earth Hour Makassar and other community groups. Hand held signs represents domestic issues such as forest fires, coral bleaching and heavy reliance on coal.

Getting undressed in winter to show the Earth is heating up a little more every year

Caroline Lucas, Green party MP, told crowds in London:

To change everything we need everyone. That’s why people are gathering in cities around this country and the world. We are already so far ahead of the governments and the private corporations who block us....We already know that what’s on offer in Paris is nowhere near enough.we know that business as usual will take us towards a world of 4C warming....that is a future of droughts desertification and disease. We refuse to leave our future in the hands of those inside the secure zone in a conference centre in Paris... We already know what needs to be done. We need a massive investment in renewable energy and efficiency to create hundreds of thousands of jobs...we need to be serious about agriculture because meat production creates more emissions than all the card and trains and planes out together.

Special shout out to divestment campaign who with all their inspiration have showed us the way

David Cameron is taking a wreaking ball to environmental policy....We are here to say the fight against fracking and nuclear is only just beginning.

Here’s some video of Corbyn’s speech, via James Randerson. Apologies for it being split into four parts:

Corbyn: make world leaders act at Paris

Corbyn, standing atop a fire engine in London next to shadow chancellor John McDonnell, tells his audience to send a message to the more than 147 world leaders expected to attend the Paris climate talks:

Those who are sitting around the tables in Paris have an enormous opportunity in front of them. Do not let them flake it or fool us. Make them understand that if we are to bequeath to future generations a world of flooding, a world of environmental disaster, a world where our children will not be able to live or eat properly, then they will do nothing and allow the pollution of this planet to continue. If however, they listen to the words of millions all around the world: it is possible to reduce the level of emissions, it is possible to slow the rate of temperature change, it is possible to protect large parts fo the environment of this planet, then they will have done something useful. Our message today is to them: do what you are sent there to do.

Videos to come shortly.

Updated

Cecelia Anim, president of the Royal College of Nursing, tells me:

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face. If it goes unchecked climate changewill be devastating for human health and will put a huge strain on our health system. Every healthcare professional has a duty to raise awareness of climate change. Health professionals must lead the way.

Anti-capitalists clash with police in Paris

In Paris a group of socialist activists who have been circling La Place de la Republique have confronted police at one of the exits of the famous roundabout. Tear gas and batons are being used to push them back.

It appears to be a high jacking of the climate march by those with another agenda. “It is more to against capitalism [than a call for climate action],” said one.

Police just set off large bangs to deter the crowd. Which incensed them because of the resemblance to bombs.

Updated

Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood is in London; she said:

It looks great. We are the people. Politicians are criminals. They are trapped in the rotten financial system which is the cause of poverty war and climate change....Politicians just talk about how they are going to deal with it....How are they going to deal with what will be absolute horror? These idiots accept it. We need to stop it! There is no choice between the green economy and mass extinction.

Updated

All parties were invited to speak in London but the Conservative party did not provide anyone. Lynne Featherstone is here from the Liberal Democrats. “We never find enough words to convey the cataclysm ahead. Unless we mitigate and adapt, the world will be in the greatest trouble we have ever seen,” she said. Caroline Lucas is there for the Greens and Corbyn for Labour.

The wind is blowing hard, the rain is coming down but still the people have come to London in their thousands. People have travelled here from Wales, Scotland and fracking communities in Lancashire who are standing right at the front. One group from Brighton travelled here on a bus powered by chip fat, according to organisers. There are people from the Sápmi indigenous community in Sweden, where the melting arctic is having a big impact on their daily lives.

Updated

Tens of thousands at London march

The Press Association is reporting that tens of thousands of people have gathered in central London for the march. I’ll update you on numbers later, based on what organisers and police say.

And here’s Corbyn in London, where he’s due to speak shortly (see 12:03). Next to him is Lisa Nandy MP, shadow energy and climate change secretary.

Our reporter Karl Mathiesen is in Paris where the police are still out in numbers following the attacks just over a fortnight ago:

Updated

The march in London is attracting some big crowds, colourful outfits and famous faces (I’ve seen at least one Instagrammed selfie with musician Peter Gabriel. Actor Emma Thompson and singer/activist Charlotte Church are also out there somewhere). Emma Howard is on the ground for the Guardian and will be reporting live throughout the day.

Even the BT tower is joining in:

Updated

Addressing inequality essential for tackling climate change, Corbyn to say

Here’s an excerpt of what Corbyn is expected to say in around half an hour’s time:

The greener world I know is possible is a more just, a more equal, and a more productive world

To tackle climate change, we must tackle global inequality, we must show that defeating the menace of global warming will not only improve the prospects of our children and grandchildren, but will improve lives here and now

Britain should be at the forefront of that argument, leading global efforts to a political solution to climate change at the Paris conference.

Updated

People have marched across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, in Yemen, Tanzania, Singapore, South Africa and Benin among many other countries.

Around 70 people reportedly turned up in Sanaa in Yemen, despite reported bombing by airplanes just a few miles away.

Walid Yehia Hassan Al-Hashef, an Avaaz member in Sanaa has written in to say:

Airstrike targets crowds of people and today early morning an airstrike hit around 4km from our protest location. We expected 150 people because of the airstrike only around 70 people showed up.

Yes, I have a message to every human being on our planet... In Yemen we are peaceful people we do not have place in our behaviors or culture for terror. We in Yemen love all people christians, jews, muslims and others.

Yemen climate change protest on 29 November 2015.
Yemen climate change protest on 29 November 2015. Photograph: Avaaz

Marches are getting underway in Berlin and Amsterdam:

Updated

Latvian president: deal in Paris ‘quite close’

Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, Europe’s first Green party head of state, tells Reuters that because most countries have already submitted their climate plans, a deal in Paris in two weeks’ time is close.

“...We are quite close to... an accord and a new Kyoto agreement, which would be a Paris agreement, hopefully will be reached,” he said in reference to the 1997 Kyoto protocol, the only previous legally-binding international climate treaty.

Vejonis also said he hoped all leaders would agree on a “legally-binding document” in Paris, apparently putting him at odds with the US, which has made clear it does not want a treaty.

In case you were wondering (like me) what was going to happen to all the shoes in Place de la Republique, Avaaz tells me that they are being given to a social enterprise called Relais 75 Emmaus that works with homeless people.

Updated

Maurice Strong has died

Tributes have been paid to Maurice Strong, the first executive director at the UN environment programme (Unep), who has died aged 86. He was also the secretary general at the Stockholm environment meeting in 1972 and Rio Earth Summit in 1992, which paved the way for the Paris climate summit that people are marching for today.

Maurice Strong.
Maurice Strong. Photograph: David Karp/AP

The current Unep chief, Achim Steiner, said: “Strong will forever be remembered for placing the environment on the international agenda and at the heart of development. He shepherd global environmental governance processes.”

Steiner added that a strong deal at Paris would be a “fitting tribute” to Strong’s legacy. We’ll have more on this later from my colleague John Vidal, who knew Strong.

In his last interview with the Guardian, in 2010, Strong said of the state of the world’s environment and the challenge of climate change:

Analytically, I’m pessimistic. I believe the odds are against us for making the changes we need to make in time. But, operationally, I’m optimistic because I believe that it is still possible. Tougher the longer we delay it.

Updated

Human chain in Paris

The march that was expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of Paris today may have been forbidden, but there are still plenty of people out calling for action on climate change in the French capital today.

Tweets and live streams on Periscope show what appears to be hundreds of people forming a human chain in central Paris, holding placards calling for “climate justice” and to “keep it [fossil fuels] in the ground”.

Pope Francis and UN secretary general donate shoes in Paris

As well as the Pope, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has donated his shoes (a pair of new-looking running trainers), to the Paris shoe installation:

Want to know what these marches are all about? If you can make it to London on Thursday, there’s a Guardian Live event on the Paris climate summit with Australian Tim Flannery (former chief commissioner of the Climate Commission there), former UK climate diplomat John Ashton and Friends of the Earth CEO Craig Bennett. Find out more on the event listing.

Our climate talks expert, Fiona Harvey, has also written a guide on everything you need to know about the Paris summit. Or you can watch our 60-second video explainer:

Updated

Record numbers in Australia and New Zealand

March organisers say there were at least 140,000 people marching in Australia and 33,000 in New Zealand, both of which they say are the highest ever turn-outs for climate marches in both countries. The Guardian is unable to independently verify the numbers.

Climate Home, part of the Guardian Environment Network, is in Paris this morning interviewing Emma Ruby-Sachs, acting executive director at Avaaz, which has been heavily involved in organising the marches. You can watch the interview here:

Emma Ruby-Sachs

Of the shoes installation in Paris, she says:

It’s kind of an incredible monument both to the voices that have been silenced but also to that hope for action that comes out of this city.

Updated

Remember, you can share your photos and videos of the marches via Guardian Witness (just click the blue button above on this blog). Here are some already submitted, from Australia to Dublin:

Website March4Me matched marchers with those in Paris whose March was cancelled.

Since the march has been cancelled by the French authorities in the wake of the atrocious attacks on November 13, an alternative has been found in which people can deposit shoes tomorrow morning in la place de la République, together with their messages to world leaders. The shoes will march for us in a virtual way.

Double-sided placard which I'm carrying at the march tomorrow, bigging up the 'keep it in the ground' campaign...

Getting ready for the Dublin Climate March on the 29th. The largest mobilisation Ireland will have ever seen!

Corbyn to speak at London march

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is among the public figures attending the London march later today, a spokeswoman has just confirmed to me. I’ll update this post when I know exactly when and where along the march - there’s a rally at 1pm at Millbank and speeches later at 2.45pm by parliament.

Corbyn’s attendance looks like a last-minute decision, given his name wasn’t on lists of speakers even two days ago. According to my colleague Robin McKie, he will attack the Conservative party’s leadership on climate change, following a series of green policies being cancelled over the summer, saying “There are no more hugs for the husky, instead it’s a passionate embrace for the carbon polluters.”

It’s the first time I can think of a leading Labour politician speaking at a big climate march - the most high profile politician is usually Green party MP, Caroline Lucas.

Other speakers from 2.45pm include NUS vice-president, Piers Telemacque, and musician and activist Charlotte Church who is singing with a 12-piece choir.

Updated

People are gathering in Cape Town’s Keizergracht Street. The weather for the march there looks a lot better than London, where 40mph gusts are forecast this afternoon.

Summary

Good morning from London, where march organisers are hoping to beat the turn-out of last year’s climate march which attracted around 27,000 people. The march starts at noon (local time) at Park Lane.

In Paris, as Claire pointed out, the planned march was forbidden over security fears. But thousands of shoes have been left in the Place de la Republique as an installation instead, among them a pair with Pope Francis’s name on and the the inscription Laudato Si’ (Praised be).

Cardinal Turkson, seen as a potential future Pope, said:

All members of the Catholic community are warmly invited to offer their support in prayer, word and action. And we’re inviting all the bishops and priests around the world to offer the celebration of the Eucharist, on 29 November, for a responsible and successful international conference and summit. We want to encourage the faithful and many others to exercise their ecological citizenship.

The BBC’s David Shukman is at the scene in Paris:

Among those who are bringing their shoes is Yeb Sano, the former Philippines climate negotiator who famously broke down in tears at several summits. He’s just finished a weeks-long pilgrimage from Rome to Paris for the climate talks - hence the pilgrim shoes.

There’s also a group of indigenous people meeting in Paris for a ‘healing ceremony’ in solidarity with those who lost their lives in the recent terror attacks.

Updated

I’m now handing over the live blog to my colleague Adam Vaughan in London, who’ll continue the coverage of marches across the globe today.

Thanks for reading and for all your contributions here, on Twitter and via GuardianWitness.

A reminder: you can share your pictures and videos from any of these marches – or any others taking place across the globe – via GuardianWitness or the blue button at the top of the live blog.

Here are some from readers across the globe:

Bangladesh

Global Climate March - Bangladesh with representation of BRIT from ACTION/2015!

Kenya

In Nairobi Kenya the Climate Change march was very successful,we managed to spread the information to the public,we got support from 350.org which to us was a double plus,and I believe the talk in Paris will bear fruits to our planet.

New Zealand

300 or so Golden Bay citizens marched up ( and then back down) our small main street to voice our concern about Climate Change ...to a Govt that so far isn't taking much notice

Which countries are doing the most to stop global warming?

Check out how different nations compare in our interactive:

Beirut march is underway

Despite the rain, Lebanese protesters are currently marching the streets of the capital, Beirut:

This year, marchers will not be able to rally in Paris, the home of the climate talks starting on Monday – demonstrations were cancelled in the wake of the 13 November terror attacks. Instead, others have been encouraged by Parisians to #March4Me; we’ll be keeping an eye on that campaign throughout the day.

Demonstrators who had planned to come to Paris have instead sent shoes in a sign of solidarity:

Writing in the Guardian last week, Naomi Klein argued that the banning of the Paris march was silencing the very voices that need to be heard at the climate summit:

For just two weeks every few years, the voices of the people who are getting hit first and worst get a little bit of space to be heard at the place where fateful decisions are made. That’s why Pacific islanders and Inuit hunters and low-income people of colour from places like New Orleans travel for thousands of miles to attend. The expense is enormous, in both dollars and carbon, but being at the summit is a precious chance to speak about climate change in moral terms and to put a human face to this unfolding catastrophe.

Even in these rare moments, frontline voices do not have enough of a platform in the official climate meetings, in which the microphone is dominated by governments and large, well-funded green groups. The voices of ordinary people are primarily heard in grassroots gatherings parallel to the summit, as well as in marches and protests, which in turn attract media coverage.

Now the French government has decided to take away the loudest of these megaphones, claiming that securing marches would compromise its ability to secure the official summit zone where politicians will meet.

Summary: Australia marches for climate action

Climate change rallies rolled on across Australia on Sunday, following well attended protests in Melbourne on Friday and Darwin and Brisbane on Saturday.

On Sunday, it was the turn of Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth.

Australia’s climate-sensitive neighbours in the Pacific were a key focus for the climate change rally in Sydney, with representatives of communities from Pacific nations – including Tuvalu, Nauru, Kiribati and Tonga – prominent at the front of the march from the Domain to Circular Quay.

More than 40,000 people braved Sydney’s heat for the rally on Sunday afternoon, calling on Australia to play a lead role in brokering binding emissions targets for the world to keep global temperature rise below 2C, and to commit to greater domestic emissions cuts than the 26% to 28% the government is currently proposing.

In Canberra, people brought their children to march with them from Parliament House to the tent embassy, near Old Parliament House.

Police estimate about 3,000 people showed up, while protesters think the number was closer to 6,000

The Perth event started sombrely. At 3.25pm, at least 5,000 people sat in silence in Hay Street Mall to mark people who have lost their lives, homes and livelihoods to the effects of climate change. The group, in their colour blocks, had marched 2km from Wellington Square and stretched the whole 300-metre length, watched by bemused Christmas shoppers clutching plastic bags and taking photos of the crowd.

The march was led by a group from the Noongar Whadjuk nation and addressed by Christian, Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu faith leaders.

You can read the full report here:

South Korea's climate march begins

The Seoul march is underway, with protesters making use of some inventive props:

Nuns holding balloons prepare to march during a rally in central Seoul.
Nuns holding balloons prepare to march during a rally in central Seoul. Photograph: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
Participants holding umbrellas with the message “Well for us, Hell for earth” march in Seoul.
Participants holding umbrellas with the message “Well for us, Hell for earth” march in Seoul. Photograph: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

And of course it’s not just Europe that is yet to march: here’s a selection of other cities that will be on the move today. Please do get in touch below the line to share details of others you know or are going to. Again, all times are local.

Durban, South Africa

10am at Suncoast Boulevard.

Cape Town, South Africa

11am from Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

Beirut, Lebanon

Leaving Horsh Beirut at 9am, marchers will take the Damascus Road to reach Beirut Downtown at 12.30pm.

Kampala, Uganda

9am from Makerere University Freedom Square.

Seoul, South Korea

1pm from Cheonggye Square.

Kiev, Ukraine

Shevchenko Park at 12.30pm.

You can find more listings here.

Updated

European marches on Sunday: when and where

As Europe wakes up on Sunday morning, these are the places to keep an eye on – or head to – for climate marches today. All times are local.

London

Rally forming from 12 noon at Park Lane – nearest tube Hyde Park Corner & Green Park.

Berlin

Midday at central station.

Madrid

Midday at Plaza de Cibeles.

Barcelona

11.30am at the Via Laietana.

Rome

2pm at Piazza Campo de’ Fiori.

Amsterdam

Midday at Museum Square.

Copenhagen

Leaving 1pm from Den Røde Plads Square in Nørrebro to march to the parliament building, Christiansborg.

Stockholm

1pm at Norra Latin schoolyard.

Budapest

Erzsébet Square at 1pm.

A reminder: you can share your pictures and videos from any of these marches – or any others taking place across the globe – via GuardianWitness or the blue button at the top of the live blog.

Japanese campaigners march in Tokyo

Japan Today reported that around 1,000 people marched in Tokyo on Saturday, but that organisers had hoped for many more:

Some demonstrators were disappointed that the number of participants was not as many as expected, with Chigusa Okano, a 22-year-old university student in Tokyo, saying: “I especially want young people to show interest in this matter.”

Alex Brodie, a 41-year-old company worker living in Tokyo, said he finds Japanese people’s lack of interest in the issue “pathetic”.

“Japan needs to wake up. We need to have solar power on every roof top,” he said as he marched with his wife and child, while calling on the Japanese government to push for policies to introduce more renewable energy.

The issue of clean, renewable energy has been a key one since a tsunami swamped the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011, sending three reactors into meltdown.

“Japan must take the lead in the summit to promote renewable energy because Japan is a rare country that has experienced such a big disaster,” rally organiser Daigo Ichikawa told AFP news agency.

Environmentalists hold up placards that read “Climate Action Now!” during a rally in Tokyo on Saturday.
Environmentalists hold up placards that read “Climate Action Now!” during a rally in Tokyo on Saturday. Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images

Bangladesh march for climate justice

AFP reports that more than 5,000 people took part in climate marches on Saturday across 30 different locations in Bangladesh – a country on the front line of climate change, exposed to rising seas, superstorms and expanding deserts.

People take part in the global climate march in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Saturday.
People take part in the global climate march in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Saturday. Photograph: KM Asad/ZUMA Press/Corbis

Unity is the theme of the People’s Climate rally in Perth. Led by Noongar Whadjuk MCs, and kicked off with a Whadjuk dance to clear the bad spirits, the crowd then listened in silence to a multi-faith speech led by Perth Anglican assistant Bishop Tom Wilmot.

Wilmot introduced Jewish, Hindu and Sikh leaders and made a point of referring to Rateb Jneid, president of the Islamic Council of Western Australia, as his “brother in the faith”, repeating: “And he is my brother.”

There has been no mention of the Paris attacks, but the group of more than 1000 people, which has now left Wellington Square to march on the city, will sit for a minute’s silence in Hay Street Mall to mark those who have already lost their lives, homes and livelihoods from climate-related events.
In particular the minute’s silence will honour those affected by bushfires, which have killed six people in Australia this November.

Kevin Jolley, president of the firefighters’ union of WA, said that anyone who had spent time on a fire line knew that the effects of man-made climate change were devastating and real. “There are no sceptics on the end of a fire hose,” Jolly said.

Philippines climate march

Activists in the Philippines marched on Saturday, with Rappler reporting that thousands took to the streets across several cities, including the capital, Manila.

Agence France-Presse reported:

Some 3,000 people including religious clergy, students and activists marched through the Philippine capital of Manila demanding curbs on emissions to mute the impact of climate change, which is blamed for a spike in disastrous extreme weather.

“Protect our common home” and “climate justice” were written on the placards held aloft by the surging crowd.

“We want to send a message to the rest of the world, especially the world leaders at the climate talks, to say that our survival is not negotiable,” said Denise Fontanilla, spokeswoman for the Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development.

The Perth marchers are getting ready to go. (Take a look at this post to get up to speed on the colour-coding.) They have been asked to “stay classy” as they march through the city streets, Calla Wahlquist reports.

Jakarta marches for climate action

Indonesian president Joko Widodo left Jakarta for Paris this morning. His country has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 29% by 2030.

But activists say Indonesia could be doing more to reduce its use of fossil fuels.

In September, after months of raging forest fires, Indonesia overtook China and the US to become the world’s biggest climate polluter.

Protesters participate in a climate march in Jakarta on Sunday.
Protesters participate in a climate march in Jakarta on Sunday. Photograph: STRINGER/Reuters

A reminder: you can contribute to this live blog and our other climate march coverage via GuardianWitness here or the big blue button at the top of this page.

Here are some of the pictures readers have shared so far.

From Sydney, Australia:

Sydney Domain, 2015, 29th Nov. Climate Change march

From New Zealand:

This parade engaged the creative spirits of a ladies knitting group, a recycle group and puppet makers to express a positive response to the challenges of climate change.

From Edinburgh, Scotland:

Scotland's huge colourful climate march winding down the Mound

From Geneva, Switzerland:

5000 thousand people attended the climate march in Geneva this Saturday

From San Luis Obispo, California, US:

We had about 200 people come out today to create a better world. Our Mayor, framers,and children were amongst our speaking demanding action on climate change.

All roads in Sydney’s CBD that were closed for the march have now reopened and there are no traffic delays reported.

Safe journey home, Sydney marchers. Keep reading the blog, though. There’s plenty more to come …

Perth march begins

Noongar Whadjuk man Noel Nannup gives the welcome, saying: “Our planet is dying.”

Protesters say the fight for the climate can’t be separated from the right of Indigenous people to country, Calla Wahlquist reports from the Perth rally.

More than 300 people are gathered in coloured clumps under the trees that line Perth’s Wellington Square, ahead of the people’s climate rally.

One of those is Gerard Siero, an ecological urbanism researcher at UWA (the University of Western Australia), who is wearing a yellow linen suit and leaning against his folding bike, which collapsed down to a 10kg stick for ease of commuting. He’s marching for the solutions to climate change.

“We have all the solutions we need to solve the problem,” Siero said. “We don’t have the will on behalf of our politicians, but we have the will on behalf of the people.

“What we are really trying to march with today is to let the politicians know that they have to get out of the way.”

Siero said Australia had the capacity and technology to switch off carbon, but it was fast running out of time. “We’re at the point where if we don’t so something it will be too late to do anything but get out the ambulances,” he said.

Sydney lord mayor: 'at least 45,000 marchers'

Clover Moore, Sydney’s lord mayor, says these numbers would make today the biggest climate march ever held in the city:

My colleague Calla Wahlquist is in Perth, where marchers will be setting off in later today:

We’ll be following the progress of that march once it gets underway too, plus you can keep an eye on updates @callapilla.

With the march in Paris – host of the COP21 climate summit – cancelled after the terrorist attacks of 13 November, activists have turned to other ways of showing their support for the global climate march, Reuters reports:

Activists plan to join arms and form a “human chain” in Paris on Sunday to urge action on global warming, in a muted rally after attacks on the city by Islamic State.

More than 2,000 climate events are planned in cities including Sydney, Jakarta, Berlin, London, Sao Paulo and New York, making it one of the biggest days of action on climate change in history, organisers say.

Activists in France scaled back their plans when the government imposed a state of emergency after the attacks two weeks ago killed 130 people, banning the planned demonstration in Paris, meant as the biggest of all.

In France, activists plan to form a static human chain, formed by about 3,400 people joining arms along what had been the original 3km (1.9 miles) route through central Paris from the Place de la Republique to Place de la Nation.

“This is a moment for the whole world to join hands,” said Iain Keith, campaign director for Avaaz, one of the organisers.

Separately, more than 10,000 demonstrators who had planned to come to Paris have instead sent shoes to form a big pile in a sign of solidarity. Organisers said the Vatican even sent a pair to represent Pope Francis.

Shoes are symbolically placed on a sidewalk in Paris near the Place de la Republique.
Shoes are symbolically placed on a sidewalk in Paris near the Place de la Republique. Photograph: Eric Gaillard/Reuters

Alix Mazounie of French Climate Action Network said the activists reckoned a human chain would not violate the state of emergency.

“This is not civil disobedience,” she said. The chain would break, for instance, wherever it crossed a road to avoid disrupting traffic.

But, underscoring security worries, France put 24 green activists under house arrest before the summit, interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Saturday, saying they were suspected of planning violent protests at the talks.

Foreign minister Laurent Fabius welcomed the worldwide demonstrations. “It is very positive,” Fabius said, for governments to feel public pressure to act.

While Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull heads to Paris for the climate summit, Puppet Malcolm decided to take a turn in the Sydney march:

A giant Malcolm Turnbull puppet joins tens of thousands of marchers in Sydney’s Domain as part of the global people’s climate march on Sunday 29 November 2015.
A giant Malcolm Turnbull puppet joins tens of thousands of marchers in Sydney’s Domain as part of the global people’s climate march on Sunday 29 November 2015. Photograph: Janine Israel/Guardian

And it seems he brought an old, um, pal with him:

The Sydney march is well and truly on the move, reports Ben Doherty:

Playing ‘Hot, Hot, Hot’ as they march down Macquarie St towards the Opera House. Jubilant, boisterous mood.

Sydney protesters march down Macquarie St in the people’s climate march.
Sydney protesters march down Macquarie St in the people’s climate march. Photograph: Ben Doherty for the Guardian

The Canberra march has wrapped up without incident, and ACT Policing has issued Guardian Australia with this statement from operation commander Jo Cameron:

There was a large, well-behaved crowd and it was a peaceful event. There were no arrests and no incidents.

There were some road closures during the march, which were opened as soon as possible.

As you were, Canberra. Carry on with your weekend.

My colleague Janine Israel has also been at the Sydney rally, and reports that many Islander and Indigenous communities are represented at the march.

She spoke to members of Australia’s Tongan community. One protester told her:

Our islands are drowning. Where are we going to go?

Members of Australia’s Tongan community at the Sydney people’s climate march.
Members of Australia’s Tongan community at the Sydney people’s climate march. Photograph: Janine Israel for the Guardian

What are Australia's climate targets?

Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will arrive in Paris later tonight for key international climate talks, armed with a climate target that’s lower than many other developed countries.

The Australian government has committed to cutting emissions by 26%-28% of 2005 levels by 2030.

By comparison, the United States has vowed to cut emissions by 26%-28% too – but five years earlier than Australia, by 2025.

Canada has committed to a 30% cut and so has New Zealand, while the European Union has vowed to reduce emissions by 40% of 1990 levels by 2030.

The Labor party released its own targets on Friday. It wants a 45% cut by 2030, a figure Turnbull has criticised as “heroic” and expensive.

But modelling by leading economist Warwick McKibbon, did not find a large difference in the economic impacts of the targets. A reduction of 26% would shave between 0.2% and 0.3% of the GDP, while a 45% reduction would see between 0.5% and 0.7% lost.

Helpful reminder for those marching in Sydney right now:

The crowds in Sydney have observed one minute’s silence to reflect upon those most affected by climate change, ended by the sounding of a didgeridoo.

Many of those there are saying that the Domain – no small space – is almost full to capacity.

Once the speeches and songs are finished, the rally is set to march through the streets of Sydney in colour-coordinated blocks:

  • yellow for “solutions”, eg renewables.
  • orange for “just transitions”, advocating for fair jobs.
  • red to stand with those already on the front line of climate change.
  • purple for diversity of faith and cultures.
  • blue to represent future generations.
  • white for those in healthcare and science.
  • blue to stand up for threatened ecosystems.
  • and a group marching for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The crowd listen to speeches at the Domain in Sydney, Australia, on 29 November 2015 as part of global climate marches in the lead-up to COP 21 in Paris.
The crowd listen to speeches at the Domain in Sydney, Australia, on 29 November 2015 as part of global climate marches in the lead-up to COP 21 in Paris. Photograph: Ben Doherty for the Guardian

Although it is very hot in Sydney today, with protesters – those who weren’t canny enough to bring their umbrellas – seeking out whatever shade they can find, activists are well aware that the real front line against climate change lies further west, in the Pacific islands.

A good primer on that situation is this report by my colleague Oliver Milman:

The cause for concern is clear – Nasa recently reported the world’s sea level has risen nearly 8cm since 1992, with the Pacific experiencing a more rapid increase than other oceans.

A rise of around a metre by the end of the century now looks likely. For low-lying islands in the Pacific, this means coastal erosion, saltwater seeping into precious rainwater catchments and ruined crops.

Meanwhile, rising temperatures will heighten the risk of diseases, including those carried by mosquitos. Cyclones are expected to become more severe. The World Health Organisation estimates climate change will cause around 250,000 deaths globally between 2030 and 2050.

Pacific Islands will be on the ‘frontline’ of climate change, the Sydney climate change march is told.
Pacific Islands will be on the ‘frontline’ of climate change, the Sydney climate change march is told. Photograph: Ben Doherty for the Guardian

My colleague Ben Doherty is in Sydney’s Domain, sheltering from the sun and hearing from Professor Tim Flannery, one of Australia’s leading climate change activists, who says today “looks like the largest climate march ever in Australia”.

The Paris talks, he said, are the last chance to save “many things we care about, like the Great Barrier Reef … We are coming to this issue very late.”

There are no easy fixes to the climate problem, he warned, but Australia needs to close down polluting industries and dependence on fossil fuels:

We are meeting in the home city of the Australian prime minister. We need to send a very powerful message to him: do what the people demand.

He said the Australian people would not accept anything less than a successful outcome at Paris.

It was a very peaceful, family-oriented affair in Canberra, as people brought their children to march with them from Parliament House to the tent embassy, near Old Parliament House.

Police estimate around 3,000 people showed up, while protesters think the number is closer to 6,000. Canberrans are fairly cautious about protesting, as many are public servants and are often reluctant to make political statements.

One of the coordinators of the event, Emma Robinson from the Conservation Council, said she was not surprised that so many showed up in the capital.

“Climate change is and has always been everyone’s business,” she said.

The event was staffed by about 80 volunteers, most of whom are Canberra locals who are part of the Conservation Council.

Former chief scientist of Australia, Penny Sackett, said that protests like Sunday’s make people feel as though they are taking action on climate change.

“People can become discouraged because it appears as though [political] change does not happen swiftly enough,” she told Guardian Australia.

She said the march was a message from voters to world leaders who are about to meet on climate change in Paris: “We’re watching.”

The Canberra Times now estimates there are more than 5,000 people taking part in the march there.

Attendance numbers are always a tricky thing with marches, with totals from organisers and police often varying wildly.

Police estimates for Melbourne, for example, put the crowd numbers by the end of Friday night at about 40,000, but organisers said 60,000 turned out.

Similarly, estimates for Brisbane on Saturday came in at between 5,000 and 10,000.

We’re yet to hear estimates for the Sydney crowd but organisers already seem overwhelmed by the numbers who have shown up so far.

An enterprising cyclist at the Adelaide rally:

A cyclist wears a helmet with a solar panel attached as he participates in a march along the main street of Adelaide.
A cyclist wears a helmet with a solar panel attached as he participates in a march along the main street of Adelaide. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

Meanwhile, some Sydney marchers seek out the shade:

Sydney is go!

The Sydney rally is underway, with thousands already in attendance and many more still arriving:

Ben Doherty is now in the Domain, from where the march is leaving, and reports “massive numbers”:

Much more multi-coloured than the Hyde Park beginnings, people in all manner of colours, lots of associated causes: anti-nuclear, church groups, refugee groups.

One guy has a mallard on his head, and a tree growing out of his backpack.

Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore tells the crowd that COP21 in Paris will be the most important meeting of our lifetime.

“On it depends the future of our planet,” she says.

Hello Hobart! Tasmanian marchers are also assembling, with a minute’s silence for Paris, which is hosting this week’s climate talks, but – after the terrorist attacks of 13 November – will not be holding its own climate march:

My colleague Ben Doherty is with the Sydney marchers and sends this dispatch from the start line:

At the Sydney march, there are red shirts everywhere. Solid, if not yet spectacular numbers are gathering at the north end of Hyde Park, and marching into the Domain in bright sunshine.

Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, who brought her own phalanx of rosily-attired Young Laborites, gave a rangy press conference at which she rejected the ‘heroic’ label Malcolm Turnbull affixed to Labor’s emissions targets (it wasn’t meant as a compliment, Plibersek seems to suspect).

She condemned Turnbull for “stopping off on the way to Paris to lecture other heads of government to do more on climate change, while he is doing less”.

Plibersek said Labor’s targets would require significant change in Australia, but that the country had already seen, and embraced, change aimed at reducing emissions.

She said the $1m Australia has offered to contribute to the Commonwealth’s new Climate Finance Access Hub (established at the CHOGM meeting in Valetta) was “pathetically puny”.

The hub will be set up to help small island nations vulnerable to climate change access global funds for mitigation and adaptation.

Plibersek said Australia, given its role as a leader in the Pacific region, needed to do more to help its neighbours, some of whom face “an existential threat” from climate change.

Updated

Sydney marchers are also warming up – as is the weather, with that blue sky deciding to put in an appearance after all – and is expected to be the biggest Australian march of the day. Will NSW be able to best Melbourne’s 40,000+ from Friday?

Reader Tim Senior and friends are well stocked with placards for the Sydney rally:

A reminder: do keep your pictures, videos, thoughts and headcounts coming, to me directly @Claire_Phipps or via the blue GuardianWitness button at the top of the blog. Thank you!

My colleague Shalailah Medhora is at the Canberra march, which has just started. She estimates there are around 3,000 people there so far:

I’ll be tracking the progress of the Canberra march – along with the others today – on this live blog, plus you can keep an eye on it via @shalailah.

Many thousands of people marched in New Zealand on Saturday, with more events today: check here for those listings.

An estimated 7,000 turned out in Wellington:

And there were around 15,000 marchers in Auckland, with 8,000 more in Christchurch:

Protesters of all ages marched in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Saturday.
Protesters of all ages marched in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Saturday. Photograph: PJ Heller/ZUMA Press/Corbis

What is likely to be agreed in Paris?

We know already what the biggest emitters have committed to:

Nations responsible for more than 90% of global emissions have now come up with their targets – known in the UN jargon as intended nationally determined contributions, or INDCs.

These include all of the major developed and developing countries, though their contributions vary: in the case of developed countries, actual cuts in emissions, but for developing countries a range of targets including limits on emissions compared to “business as usual”, and pledges to increase low-carbon energy or preserve forests.

Analysis of the INDCS, endorsed by the UN, has suggested that these pledges are enough to hold the world to about 2.7C or 3C of warming. That is not quite enough to meet the scientific advice.

However, that is not the end of the story. One of the key components of any Paris agreement would be to institute a system of review of the emissions targets every five years, with a view to ratcheting them upwards.

Another, and complementary, approach is to make more effort to bring down emissions outside the UN process, for instance by engaging “non-state actors” such as cities, local governments and businesses to do more.

Canberra march gets started

It’s Canberra’s turn now, and again it looks to be a very healthy turnout under a beautiful blue sky (it’s rather grey here in Sydney, not that that should put anyone off):

Adelaide march begins

The Adelaide rally is underway and it’s a good turnout, estimated in the thousands:

A reminder: you can contribute your own pictures and videos via the blue GuardianWitness button at the top of this live blog, and/or to me @Claire_Phipps.

Updated

Avaaz, the campaign group behind the march, says more than 120,000 people have already taken part – with thousands of rallies yet to take place on Sunday, the main day of action.

Thousands of people marched in Brisbane on Saturday – organisers put it at 10,000 – and more in Darwin, following Friday’s 40,000-strong rally in Melbourne.

Organisers said thousands took part in 35 New Zealand locations – the smallest being on Raoul Island, where the island’s entire population of seven turned out.

My colleague Melissa Davey was at the Melbourne march on Friday evening and sent this report:

Thousands of people were marching through Melbourne’s CBD on Friday evening in what is expected to the largest in a series of climate change protests being held throughout Australia over the weekend.

They gathered in front of the state library and, as the lawns filled with protesters putting finishing touches on their placards, they took to the surrounding roads just in time for peak hour.

Environmentalists, unionists, religious organisations, youth groups, doctors, Indigenous organisations, and people from the aid and development sector were part of the crowd. Police estimates put the crowd numbers by the end of the night at about 40,000, but organisers said 60,000 turned out for the event.

Why Paris, why now?

After the terrorist attacks of 13 November, the meeting of world leaders in the French capital beginning on Monday has an added poignancy.

But the COP 21 talks – it stands for conference of the parties, the yearly United Nations climate change conference; this is the 21st – will focus on hammering out a new global agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and with them the threat of climate change.

Here are a couple of key questions answered by the Guardian’s environment reporter Fiona Harvey:

Why now?

Current commitments on greenhouse gas emissions run out in 2020, so at Paris governments are expected to produce an agreement on what happens for the decade after that at least, and potentially beyond.

Why is this important?

Scientists have warned that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, we will pass the threshold beyond which global warming becomes catastrophic and irreversible. That threshold is estimated as a temperature rise of 2C above pre-industrial levels, and on current emissions trajectories we are heading for a rise of about 5C.

That may not sound like much, but the temperature difference between today’s world and the last ice age was about 5C, so seemingly small changes in temperature can mean big differences for the Earth.

Will world leaders go to Paris?

Yes. The heads of state or government of more than 130 countries have already said they will come. These include French president Francois Hollande, Barack Obama of the US, Xi Jinping of China, Narendra Modi of India, Angela Merkel of Germany, Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull, John Key of New Zealand and David Cameron of the UK.

Unlike the Copenhagen talks in 2009, however, at which world leaders turned up at the last minute of the two weeks of talks, this time the leaders will arrive at the beginning of the conference, give their negotiating teams clear instructions, and expect a fully formed agreement at the end of it.

Marches in Australia

Some Australian cities have already met and marched, with Melbourne getting in first on Friday evening, and Darwin and Brisbane on Saturday. I’ll have reports and pictures from those marches on this live blog shortly, along with news from New Zealand, which held most of its events on Saturday too.

Here’s the line-up for today:

Adelaide: Action started from 11am local (11.30am AEDT) at Ester Lipman Gardens, adjacent to the Torrens Parade Ground.

Canberra: Speakers from 12 midday at Parliament Lawns before the march to the Tent Embassy grounds and West Lawns.

Sydney: Marchers are asked to gather at 12.30 for a 1pm start from the Domain.

Hobart: March begins at 1pm from Parliament Lawns.

Perth: Another 1pm start (4pm AEDT), from Wellington Square.

Plus a heap of other marches – if one can heap a march – in other towns and cities: check out the list on the People’s Climate March website.

Opening summary

Welcome to live coverage of the global climate march – a continent-spanning series of rallies which organisers hope will see millions of people join to highlight the need for a worldwide consensus on tackling climate change ahead of the COP21 talks in Paris, which open tomorrow.

I’ll be kicking off this live blog from Sydney, handing over later to colleagues in London and New York, and aiming to bring you updates from marches in all those places and everywhere in between.

Last year, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels; thousands more turned out in Sydney and Brisbane, with 30,000 thronging the streets of Melbourne. In New York, more than 300,000 marchers took part, on a day of 2,700 simultaneous climate events worldwide.

This year, marchers will not be able to rally in Paris, the home of the climate talks starting on Monday – demonstrations were cancelled in the wake of the 13 November terror attacks. Instead, others have been encouraged by Parisians to #March4Me; we’ll be keeping an eye on that campaign throughout the day.

If you’re taking part in the marches and want to share a story, an observation, a pun or a picture, please do get in touch below the line or give me a shout on Twitter @Claire_Phipps. I’ll tweet key developments from there too.

You can also share your pictures and videos of the march via GuardianWitness here or the blue button at the top of the blog, just up there.

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It’s easy to overlook the small items in your medicine cabinet, especially something as routine as cough drops. Most of us grab them without a second thought, trusting they’re safe and effective. However, recent recalls have raised concerns about certain products that may pose unexpected health risks. From contamination issues…
Budget and the Bees
Budget and the Bees
Louis CK to headline Hollywood Bowl for Netflix festival
Headlining set for Netflix Is a Joke festival marks first outing with major streamer since misconduct allegations in 2017
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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