People’s Climate Marches 2015

The last week of November saw hundreds of thousands of people around the world march against climate change.

More than 600,000 people across 175 countries turned out at grass roots organised events with over 130,000 at marches in Australia. The largest in the world was the Melbourne rally on Friday 27th with 60,000 in attendance. The diverse crowd saw environmentalists, unionists, religious organisations, youth groups, doctors, Indigenous organisations, and people from the aid and development sector all taking part.

The rallies called for fossil fuels to remain in the ground, for nations to swiftly shift to 100% renewable energy and the dire need for a strong resolution to be passed at the Paris UN climate summit. This week in the lead up to the talks, the UN’s weather body said the average global temperature rise is set to touch 1°C, which is already halfway to the Paris conference’s attempted 2°C limit. Analysts say that the voluntary carbon curbing pledges that nations have submitted in the lead up to the Paris summit, even if vehemently adhered to will still put the Earth on target for 3°C rise by the end of the century.