Global climate march 2015: hundreds of thousands march around the world – as it happened

Noongar Whadjuk man Noel Nannup gives the welcome, saying: “Our planet is dying.”

Protesters say the fight for the climate can’t be separated from the right of Indigenous people to country, Calla Wahlquist reports from the Perth rally.

29 Nov 201500.17 EST

Calla Wahlquist

More than 300 people are gathered in coloured clumps under the trees that line Perth’s Wellington Square, ahead of the people’s climate rally.

One of those is Gerard Siero, an ecological urbanism researcher at UWA (the University of Western Australia), who is wearing a yellow linen suit and leaning against his folding bike, which collapsed down to a 10kg stick for ease of commuting. He’s marching for the solutions to climate change.

“We have all the solutions we need to solve the problem,” Siero said. “We don’t have the will on behalf of our politicians, but we have the will on behalf of the people.

“What we are really trying to march with today is to let the politicians know that they have to get out of the way.”

Siero said Australia had the capacity and technology to switch off carbon, but it was fast running out of time. “We’re at the point where if we don’t so something it will be too late to do anything but get out the ambulances,” he said.

Clover Moore, Sydney’s lord mayor, says these numbers would make today the biggest climate march ever held in the city:

My colleague Calla Wahlquist is in Perth, where marchers will be setting off in later today:

We’ll be following the progress of that march once it gets underway too, plus you can keep an eye on updates @callapilla.

With the march in Paris – host of the COP21 climate summit – cancelled after the terrorist attacks of 13 November, activists have turned to other ways of showing their support for the global climate march, Reuters reports:

Activists plan to join arms and form a “human chain” in Paris on Sunday to urge action on global warming, in a muted rally after attacks on the city by Islamic State.

More than 2,000 climate events are planned in cities including Sydney, Jakarta, Berlin, London, Sao Paulo and New York, making it one of the biggest days of action on climate change in history, organisers say.

Activists in France scaled back their plans when the government imposed a state of emergency after the attacks two weeks ago killed 130 people, banning the planned demonstration in Paris, meant as the biggest of all.

In France, activists plan to form a static human chain, formed by about 3,400 people joining arms along what had been the original 3km (1.9 miles) route through central Paris from the Place de la Republique to Place de la Nation.

“This is a moment for the whole world to join hands,” said Iain Keith, campaign director for Avaaz, one of the organisers.

Separately, more than 10,000 demonstrators who had planned to come to Paris have instead sent shoes to form a big pile in a sign of solidarity. Organisers said the Vatican even sent a pair to represent Pope Francis.

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Alix Mazounie of French Climate Action Network said the activists reckoned a human chain would not violate the state of emergency.

“This is not civil disobedience,” she said. The chain would break, for instance, wherever it crossed a road to avoid disrupting traffic.

But, underscoring security worries, France put 24 green activists under house arrest before the summit, interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Saturday, saying they were suspected of planning violent protests at the talks.

Foreign minister Laurent Fabius welcomed the worldwide demonstrations. “It is very positive,” Fabius said, for governments to feel public pressure to act.

While Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull heads to Paris for the climate summit, Puppet Malcolm decided to take a turn in the Sydney march:

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And it seems he brought an old, um, pal with him:

The Sydney march is well and truly on the move, reports Ben Doherty:

Playing ‘Hot, Hot, Hot’ as they march down Macquarie St towards the Opera House. Jubilant, boisterous mood.

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29 Nov 201523.05 EST

Shalailah Medhora

The Canberra march has wrapped up without incident, and ACT Policing has issued Guardian Australia with this statement from operation commander Jo Cameron:

There was a large, well-behaved crowd and it was a peaceful event. There were no arrests and no incidents.

There were some road closures during the march, which were opened as soon as possible.

As you were, Canberra. Carry on with your weekend.

My colleague Janine Israel has also been at the Sydney rally, and reports that many Islander and Indigenous communities are represented at the march.

She spoke to members of Australia’s Tongan community. One protester told her:

Our islands are drowning. Where are we going to go?

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29 Nov 201522.43 EST

What are Australia's climate targets?

Shalailah Medhora

Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will arrive in Paris later tonight for key international climate talks, armed with a climate target that’s lower than many other developed countries.

The Australian government has committed to cutting emissions by 26%-28% of 2005 levels by 2030.

By comparison, the United States has vowed to cut emissions by 26%-28% too – but five years earlier than Australia, by 2025.

Canada has committed to a 30% cut and so has New Zealand, while the European Union has vowed to reduce emissions by 40% of 1990 levels by 2030.

The Labor party released its own targets on Friday. It wants a 45% cut by 2030, a figure Turnbull has criticised as “heroic” and expensive.

But modelling by leading economist Warwick McKibbon, did not find a large difference in the economic impacts of the targets. A reduction of 26% would shave between 0.2% and 0.3% of the GDP, while a 45% reduction would see between 0.5% and 0.7% lost.