Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is among the public figures attending the London march later today, a spokeswoman has just confirmed to me. I’ll update this post when I know exactly when and where along the march - there’s a rally at 1pm at Millbank and speeches later at 2.45pm by parliament.
Corbyn’s attendance looks like a last-minute decision, given his name wasn’t on lists of speakers even two days ago. According to my colleague Robin McKie, he will attack the Conservative party’s leadership on climate change, following a series of green policies being cancelled over the summer, saying “There are no more hugs for the husky, instead it’s a passionate embrace for the carbon polluters.”
It’s the first time I can think of a leading Labour politician speaking at a big climate march - the most high profile politician is usually Green party MP, Caroline Lucas.
Other speakers from 2.45pm include NUS vice-president, Piers Telemacque, and musician and activist Charlotte Church who is singing with a 12-piece choir.
People are gathering in Cape Town’s Keizergracht Street. The weather for the march there looks a lot better than London, where 40mph gusts are forecast this afternoon.
Good morning from London, where march organisers are hoping to beat the turn-out of last year’s climate march which attracted around 27,000 people. The march starts at noon (local time) at Park Lane.
In Paris, as Claire pointed out, the planned march was forbidden over security fears. But thousands of shoes have been left in the Place de la Republique as an installation instead, among them a pair with Pope Francis’s name on and the the inscription Laudato Si’ (Praised be).
Cardinal Turkson, seen as a potential future Pope, said:
All members of the Catholic community are warmly invited to offer their support in prayer, word and action. And we’re inviting all the bishops and priests around the world to offer the celebration of the Eucharist, on 29 November, for a responsible and successful international conference and summit. We want to encourage the faithful and many others to exercise their ecological citizenship.
The BBC’s David Shukman is at the scene in Paris:
A sea of shoes in Place de la Republique in Paris: protests are banned here so you have to imagine them #COP21pic.twitter.com/AetuepjzAt
Among those who are bringing their shoes is Yeb Sano, the former Philippines climate negotiator who famously broke down in tears at several summits. He’s just finished a weeks-long pilgrimage from Rome to Paris for the climate talks - hence the pilgrim shoes.
Pope Francis has reportedly sent his pair of shoes in solidarity with the March of Shoes in Paris tomorrow. I'll bring my pair pilgrim shoes
There’s also a group of indigenous people meeting in Paris for a ‘healing ceremony’ in solidarity with those who lost their lives in the recent terror attacks.
A reminder: you can share your pictures and videos from any of these marches – or any others taking place across the globe – via GuardianWitness or the blue button at the top of the live blog.
Here are some from readers across the globe:
Bangladesh
Global Climate March - Bangladesh
Global Climate March - Bangladesh with representation of BRIT from ACTION/2015!
Kenya
The climate change March
In Nairobi Kenya the Climate Change march was very successful,we managed to spread the information to the public,we got support from 350.org which to us was a double plus,and I believe the talk in Paris will bear fruits to our planet.
New Zealand
Young and old Takaka NZ
300 or so Golden Bay citizens marched up ( and then back down) our small main street to voice our concern about Climate Change ...to a Govt that so far isn't taking much notice
This year, marchers will not be able to rally in Paris, the home of the climate talks starting on Monday – demonstrations were cancelled in the wake of the 13 November terror attacks. Instead, others have been encouraged by Parisians to #March4Me; we’ll be keeping an eye on that campaign throughout the day.
Demonstrators who had planned to come to Paris have instead sent shoes in a sign of solidarity:
Writing in the Guardian last week, Naomi Klein argued that the banning of the Paris march was silencing the very voices that need to be heard at the climate summit:
For just two weeks every few years, the voices of the people who are getting hit first and worst get a little bit of space to be heard at the place where fateful decisions are made. That’s why Pacific islanders and Inuit hunters and low-income people of colour from places like New Orleans travel for thousands of miles to attend. The expense is enormous, in both dollars and carbon, but being at the summit is a precious chance to speak about climate change in moral terms and to put a human face to this unfolding catastrophe.
Even in these rare moments, frontline voices do not have enough of a platform in the official climate meetings, in which the microphone is dominated by governments and large, well-funded green groups. The voices of ordinary people are primarily heard in grassroots gatherings parallel to the summit, as well as in marches and protests, which in turn attract media coverage.
Now the French government has decided to take away the loudest of these megaphones, claiming that securing marches would compromise its ability to secure the official summit zone where politicians will meet.
On Sunday, it was the turn of Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth.
Australia’s climate-sensitive neighbours in the Pacific were a key focus for the climate change rally in Sydney, with representatives of communities from Pacific nations – including Tuvalu, Nauru, Kiribati and Tonga – prominent at the front of the march from the Domain to Circular Quay.
More than 40,000 people braved Sydney’s heat for the rally on Sunday afternoon, calling on Australia to play a lead role in brokering binding emissions targets for the world to keep global temperature rise below 2C, and to commit to greater domestic emissions cuts than the 26% to 28% the government is currently proposing.
In Canberra, people brought their children to march with them from Parliament House to the tent embassy, near Old Parliament House.
Police estimate about 3,000 people showed up, while protesters think the number was closer to 6,000
The Perth event started sombrely. At 3.25pm, at least 5,000 people sat in silence in Hay Street Mall to mark people who have lost their lives, homes and livelihoods to the effects of climate change. The group, in their colour blocks, had marched 2km from Wellington Square and stretched the whole 300-metre length, watched by bemused Christmas shoppers clutching plastic bags and taking photos of the crowd.
The march was led by a group from the Noongar Whadjuk nation and addressed by Christian, Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu faith leaders.
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