Global climate protests push for more government action
Protesters called for measures to prevent dangerous levels of global warming and to address the plight of the world’s poorest, who are particularly affected by climate change.
Swedish activists called on leaders meeting in Glasgow next month to agree on tougher actions to tackle climate change. (Reuters)
Environmental activists have staged protests across continents to lobby their demands for increased government action to curb global warming ahead of the upcoming UN climate summit in Glasgow.
Protesters gathered in Uganda, Bangladesh, India, Italy, Sweden and Germany to call for action to prevent dangerous global warming and take into account the plight of the world’s poorest, particularly affected by climate change .
Thousands of people, mostly young people, gathered in front of Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate, carrying banners with slogans such as “Act now or swim later†and “Don’t melt our futureâ€.
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Many have called on the next German government to put more emphasis on tackling climate change, with some protesters trying to block the offices of the three parties currently negotiating to form a coalition government.
These parties include the center-left Social Democrats who won the September 26 elections ahead of the center-right Union bloc of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Union bloc is not one of those talks, although Merkel is expected to attend the UN climate talks next month in her role as head of a caretaker government.
In Stockholm, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg took part in the protest. His weekly “school climate strike†helped inspire the international protest movement which saw large and regular protests before restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic disrupted such gatherings.
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Thunberg said campaigners wanted to pressure leaders meeting in Glasgow next month to agree on tougher actions to tackle climate change.
“We are not going to let them get away with talking and doing nothing and pretending the situation is under control,” she said.
Also at the Stockholm protest, activists from developing countries said the voices of those most affected by global warming must be heard in the climate debate.
“It’s really just symbolic of how the youth, the global youth movement comes together and unites and comes together as one community fighting for the same,†said Mitzi Jonelle Tan, an activist from the Philippines. .
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Source: TRTWorld and agencies