Tens of thousands marched across Australia Sunday on a third day of worldwide rallies as pressure mounts on global leaders to strike a pact on slashing greenhouse gases at crunch talks in still-shaken Paris.
Some 150 leaders including US President Barack Obama, China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and Russia’s Vladimir Putin will attend the start of the UN conference Monday, tasked with reaching the first truly universal climate pact.
The goal is to limit average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), perhaps less, over pre-Industrial Revolution levels by curbing fossil fuel emissions blamed for climate change.
Rallies demanding curbs to carbon pollution have been snowballing since Friday with marches across Australia Sunday kickstarting a final day of people-powered protest.
Similar events were planned for Seoul, Rio de Janeiro, New York and Mexico City, among others cities, with scientists warning of superstorms, drought, and rising sea levels that swamp vast areas of land if concrete action is not taken.
“There is no Planet B,” said one placard in Sydney where tens of thousands of people converged, while another read: “Solidarity on a global scale”.
A large event in Melbourne on Friday kick-started the global campaign, with rallies on Saturday from New Zealand, to the Philippines, Bangladesh and Japan.
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