According to organizers, up to 100,000 people are expected to attend a large rally on Friday.
Hundreds of people gathered in Glasgow on Saturday to urge world leaders to take action against climate change on the eve of the crucial COP26 climate conference.
Many of them walked tens or even thousands of kilometers to Glasgow, kicking off the demonstrations leading up to the UN climate conference, which runs until 12 November in the Scottish city.
The protesters, from Spain, Belgium and Scotland, marched through the city center with slogans such as “Facts now”, “Facts, not words” and “Enough of fossil fuels”, led by the group Extinction Rebellion.
“We expect more ambitious measures, that our political leaders are aware of the urgency of the situation, because our children, our grandchildren, run the risk of living in a much more complicated world, which is going to suffer serious climatic disorders,” he told the AFP Dirk Van Esbroeck, a 68-year-old pensioner from Belgium.
He and 20 other members of the “Grandparents for the Climate” group traveled by train from Belgium to Edinburgh, before reaching Glasgow on foot. “There is still a long way between declarations and action,” added this man, who has five children and 12 grandchildren.
More than 100 leaders, including American Joe Biden, Frenchman Emmanuel Macron and Indian Narendra Modi, are expected to attend the summit, considered crucial in the fight against climate change.
Climate activists from around the world will also attend. According to organizers, up to 100,000 people are expected to attend a large rally on Friday.
“We are here to demand climate justice” for the countries of the South, Becky Stockes, a 31-year-old translator who came walking from Spain, told AFP. COP26 is “a last chance,” he said, hoping “to see concrete measures.”
For Maciej Walczuk, “25 COPs have already been held and the weather has never been so bad.” The 19-year-old student hopes that this time the conference will be “different”, that he “commits to acting to save lives”.
According to Scotland Police, some 10,000 officers from across the UK will be deployed each day during COP26, representing the largest police operation ever conducted in Scotland. (I)
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