Celebrities join march on climate change

Celebrities yesterday joined tens of thousands of others to march through London to demand urgent action on climate change, as events took place around the world ahead of a UN climate summit.

Actress Emma Thompson, musician Peter Gabriel, and fashion designer and activist Vivienne Westwood were among an estimated 40,000 people who marched through Westminster calling on politicians to tackle global warming.

The march and rally was one of 2,000 events taking place in 150 countries ahead of a UN climate summit next week, which more than 120 leaders including British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama are expected to attend.

Upwards of 100,000 people were expected to take to the streets of New York, where the summit is being held, for the People’s Climate March.

The UN summit has been convened by secretary general Ban Ki-moon in a bid to drive action and momentum towards talks in Paris in 2015, where it is hoped a new global climate treaty can be agreed.

In London campaigners carrying banners that said “renewables rock”, and “for the love of polar bears and rhinos” marched through the streets, chanting “What do we want? Clean energy. When do we want it? Now.”

Speaking at the start of the march, Thompson said: “This is important for every single person on the planet, which is why it has to be the greatest grass roots movement of all time.”

She said fossil fuels had been a good idea at the time — like tobacco — but now it was clear they were killing people: “Climate change has been a bit like everybody playing a deadly game of grandmother’s footsteps for the last 20 years, now this climate change grandmother has turned around and started running towards us.

“It’s touch and go whether we’re going to survive what we’ve done.”

She criticised Mr Cameron for encouraging oil, gas, and coal, and said the politics of fighting climate change were “profound, and deep and dirty”.

She added: “This is the battle of our lives. We’re fighting for our children.”

Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said scientists were clear about the dangers of climate change, and most world leaders understood the science, but were failing to respond to what needed to happen.

He said events were taking place from Papua New Guinea and Australia to the march in New York.

“That is really what we need — global pressure coming from below on our political leaders.”