Press Association: tens of thousands to join climate protest

Emily Beament, Press Association Environment Correspondent

Tens of thousands of people are expected to join in demonstrations today calling for action on climate change ahead of crunch UN talks.

World leaders will meet next week in Copenhagen with the aim of securing a new deal to tackle rising temperatures.

Environmental campaigners, aid agencies, trade unions and organisations including the Women's Institute are travelling from across the country to take part in ``The Wave'' in London to demand a strong deal on climate change.

Protests will also be taking place in Dublin, Belfast and Glasgow as part of The Wave, which is organised by the Stop Climate Chaos coalition.

In London, an ecumenical service with an address by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams will take place in Westminster Central Hall before campaigners march from Grosvenor Square to Big Ben.

A ``climate emergency'' rally will also take place at Hyde Park Corner, organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change, with MPs including Michael Meacher, Simon Hughes, Jon McDonnell and MEP Caroline Lucas addressing protesters before they join The Wave march on Parliament.

A climate emergency bike ride is planned from Lincoln's Inn Fields, hundreds of students will perform a ``splash dance'' and after The Wave, members of the Camp for Climate Action are planning to camp out at an as-yet secret location in the capital.

The march on Parliament will be led by an open-topped double decker bus, and will feature a ukulele-playing trapeze artist, cycling bishops, an 18ft long blue dragon and a coal monster.

The Co-operative is supporting the protest and has chartered two trains from Manchester to London and one from West Yorkshire for its members to travel to the event, along with scores of buses from other locations.

The event, in which people are being asked to dress in blue, is being supported by pop group Blue's singer Antony Costa, who said: ``Climate Change is the most important issue facing us all and so the politicians must get it right in Copenhagen.''

The Stop Climate Chaos coalition, which includes groups such as Oxfam, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and WWF, is demanding the UK government increases its targets for EU-wide efforts to cut emissions.

Campaigners are demanding the Government works for a deal in Copenhagen that ensures the world avoids ``dangerous'' climate change and protects the world's poor - who they say are already feeling the effects of a warming world.

Director of the coalition Ashok Sinha said: ``Tens of thousands of people from all walks of life will converge in London to show they care passionately about climate change.

``We will call on Gordon Brown to make Copenhagen count by committing rich countries to reduce their emissions by at least 40% in the next 10 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.

``With bold leadership at home, Mr Brown can help inspire a fair, effective and binding international deal at Copenhagen.''

The talks in Copenhagen, which start on Monday, aim to secure agreement on efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and provide finance for poor countries to cope with the effects of climate change and develop without increasing their pollution.

The United Nations panel on climate change is to probe claims that scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit manipulated global warming data to support a theory of man-made climate change, it was reported.

The controversy was sparked by the publication of hacked emails on websites run by climate change sceptics, possibly in a bid to derail next week's Copenhagen conference.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), told BBC Radio 4's The Report programme the claims were serious and he wanted them investigated.

``We will certainly go into the whole lot and then we will take a position on it,'' he said.

``We certainly don't want to brush anything under the carpet. This is a serious issue and we will look into it in detail.''

The university has already appointed former civil servant Sir Muir Russell to head an inquiry into allegations of misconduct by its scientists.

Professor Michael Grubb, chairman of Climate Strategies - an international network of climate academics hosted at the University of Cambridge - said: ``The Prime Minister is right to adopt a 'glass half-full' approach ahead of next week's conference. Although Copenhagen has come a year too soon for this US administration, there is still a way of ensuring that a deal of substance can be reached.''

Prof Grubb acknowledged that US President Barack Obama's administration could not yet endorse an approach of agreeing on binding legal commitments. But he said that structuring Copenhagen decisions into two separate deals would give Mr Obama a year to ``get his house in order''.

``We should try and find a way that would enable the US to acknowledge, but not yet commit to, a view that is pretty much shared by the rest of the world - the need for consistent international targets that are binding in a multilateral treaty,'' said Prof Grubb.

``This can be achieved by a Kyoto Parties agreement at Copenhagen, excluding the US which is the only leading country not to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The US would then be able to commit to joining that agreement in a year's time, paving the way for a multilateral legally-binding agreement at the summit in Mexico next year.''