Thousands of demonstrators braved the rain and wind in Glasgow on Saturday as part of a worldwide outcry over the failure of crucial UN climate talks.
Hundreds of actions were planned around the world to urge that fossil fuel consumption be reduced and that populations currently impacted by climate change, particularly in poorer nations, receive immediate assistance.
Up to 50,000 people are expected to parade through Glasgow’s streets, according to police. Organizers later claimed that over 100,000 people attended.
On Saturday, demonstrators marched near the COP26 conference site and through the heart of the Scottish capital in a colorful protest.
Glasgow is hosting delegates from nearly 200 countries for the crucial UN talks, tasked with hammering out how to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg said the summit had gone nowhere near far enough in a speech at Friday’s youth march in Glasgow, where she labeled the conference “a failure”.
“Our so-called ‘leaders’ aren’t leading — THIS is what leadership looks like!” she said over a photograph of crowds of demonstrators in Glasgow.
A pre-COP26 estimate from the UN said that national climate plans, when brought together, put Earth on course to warm 2.7C this century.
With just 1.1C of warming so far, communities across the world are already facing ever more intense fire and drought, displacement and economic ruin wrought by global heating.
