Thousands march over climate change in Brisbane and across New Zealand

Thousands of people have marched in Brisbane and more were planning to march in Darwin on Saturday, following Friday’s 40,000-strong rally in Melbourne. Crowd reports in Brisbane varied from 5,000 to 10,000.

The People’s Climate March – a worldwide event – took place on Saturday, and organisers said thousands took part in 35 New Zealand centres – the smallest being on Raoul Island, where the island’s entire population of seven turned out.

The Brisbane march was plagued by hot, humid weather, but those rallying to call for urgent action on climate change in the lead-up to the Paris climate talks next week seemed undeterred.

The ABC reported the 5,000-strong crowd gathered at Queen’s Park before marching through the CBD and across the river to South Bank. The Pacific Climate group addressed demonstrators about the risk of catastrophic sea level rises.

Rallies are planned in Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney, Hobart and Perth on Sunday.

Before the Brisbane march, thousands had also gathered in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch in New Zealand.

A reported 15,000 marched in Auckland – although some media outlets put the figure as low as 4,000 – 8,000 in Christchurch and 7,000 marched on NZ parliament in Wellington, according to media reports.

Climate activist and actress Lucy Lawless addressed the Auckland event.

Altogether, 30 marches were scheduled across New Zealand for the weekend.

March organiser Steve Abel told the New Zealand Herald that collectively, it was by far the biggest climate change march to be held in New Zealand.

“Instead of seizing the opportunities from moving to a low-carbon future, the New Zealand government is lagging behind its people and the world by taking a weak target to Paris and refusing to take real action on climate change,” Auckland march convenor Kristin Gilles told AAP.

New Zealand is taking a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030 to the Paris talks.

“The government should listen to the thousands of New Zealanders who took to the streets today and come up with a stronger, more ambitious plan for reducing climate pollution,” said co-leader James Shaw.

However, the prime minister, John Key, has said the 30% reduction is credible.

Australian Associated Press contributed to this report.

• This report was amended on 29 November 2015 to clarify that some crowd reports put the estimated number of demonstrators in Brisbane at 10,000.