Thousands join UK-wide climate change protests
Thousands join UK-wide climate change protests
Saturday, 05, Dec 2009 06:39
By Lewis Bazley.
More than 30,000 people have taken part in protests around the UK demanding action on climate change ahead of next week's UN talks in Copenhagen.
The campaigners, who include environmental groups, aid agencies, trade unions and representative bodies such as the Women's Institute, demanded that western leaders comitt to an 80 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050.
Some 20,000 people took part in a series of London events known as 'The Wave', while similar protests, organised by the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, took place in Glasgow, Belfast and Dublin.
"We will call on Gordon Brown to make Copenhagen count by committing rich countries to reduce their emissions by at least 40 per cent in the next ten years, finally putting the right sort of money on the table to help poor countries, and urgently start the process of decarbonising our energy supply," said Ashok Sinha from the coalition.
"With bold leadership at home, Mr Brown can help inspire a fair, effective and binding international deal at Copenhagen."
The prime minister and US president Barack Obama are both expected to attend next week's summit in the Danish capital.
The Camp for Climate Action has also established their advertised camp within Trafalgar Square, a statement from the Metropolitan police confirmed.
The camp is due to remain in place for 48 hours and a "small neighbourhood style police team" will be in place, the statement added.
The demonstrations came as the Met Office confirmed it will release of 160 years' worth of raw data showing the evidence of man-made global warming.
The material had already been due for publication but its release follows the so-called 'Climategate' affair, namely the row over the leaking of emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit which led to claims that scientists had manipulated data to show the role of humanity in global warming.