Melbourne rings in call for climate action

Tens of thousands rallied in Mel-bourne on Friday to lau-nch a global campaign for climate action ahead of a crunch summit in Paris, where marches we-re cancelled amid security fears. Protesters young and old echoed the call for a phase-out of fossil fuel blamed for climate-alte-ring greenhouse gas emissions, waving placards reading: “There is no Planet B” and “Stop messing with my future”.

The police said about 40,000 people joined the Australian rally — the first of more than 2,300 events planned in about 150 countries for this weekend. Protest organisers have set up a website, www.march4me.org, where people in other cities can sign up to symbolically march for those who cannot do so in Paris.

Under heightened sec-urity two weeks after France’s worst terror attack, some 150 heads of state and government will on Monday launch a highly-anticipated UN conference tasked with inking a 195-nation climate rescue pact.

The negotiations the-mselves, conducted by rank-and-file bureaucrats, have been brought forward to Sunday, the same day tens of thousands of people will take part in Global Climate Marches to beat the drum for urgent action.

Demonstrations are planned for Saturday and Sunday in cities as div-erse as London, New Delhi, Manila, Kyoto, and New York.