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LONDON : Tens of thousands demonstrated in European capitals on Saturday, two days ahead of the vital Copenhagen summit on tackling climate change.
In London, Paris, Stockholm and Dublin, people took to the streets to call for a far-reaching international agreement on reducing emissions when world leaders meet in the Danish capital.
The December 7-18 United Nations-led talks are aimed at forging a new pact to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and their impact after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
In London, tens of thousands turned out for a protest organised by the group Stop Climate Chaos (SCC), a coalition of non-governmental organisations including Oxfam and Greenpeace.
Police said around 20,000 attended, while organisers put the figure at 40,000.
Oxfam chief executive Barbara Stocking said negotiators "must fight for a comprehensive, fair and binding deal.
"They must return home with a strong, effective climate deal... for the millions of poor people already suffering from the effects of climate change around the world."
SCC director Ashok Sinha said negotiators had to make the summit count "by committing rich countries to reduce their emissions by at least 40 percent in the next 10 years, finally putting the right sort of money on the table to help poor countries, and urgently starting the process of decarbonising our energy supply."
From the London rally, Britain's Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband told BBC television: "We're going to go all out, the whole of the British government, over the next two weeks to make sure we get the most ambitious agreement that we can."
He added: "We are very clear that we need a treaty within months of any agreement."
About 7,000 people marched in Glasgow, while another rally took place in Belfast. A few hundred turned out in Dublin.
In Copenhagen itself, the scene was calm two days ahead of the summit opening for business.
In Nytorv square, the World Wide Fund for Nature has installed an ice sculpture of a polar bear. Meanwhile near the Bella Center conference venue, a large banner was set up reading: "Don't nuke the climate".
In Brussels, European delegates boarded a special train dubbed the "Climate Express" bound for Copenhagen.
The passengers included negotiators for the governments of France, Belgium and Luxembourg who will be joined by their German counterparts in Cologne.
The train at full capacity will produce 14.2 kilos of CO2 emissions per passenger, compared to 43.6 kilos for a car and 82.4 kilos for a plane, the organisers said.
Belgian climatology professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told AFP he was "very optimistic" that the world's nations could reach an agreement.
Hundreds of people staged loud demonstrations in a dozen French cities, banging on drums and cooking pots to "keep up the noise" on climate change.
The events in Paris, Bordeaux, Marseille and other cities were timed for 12:18 pm, referring to the closing date of the conference of December 18.
"With this pressure our leaders can be made to feel responsible for the whole population of the planet," Green Party chief Cecile Duflot said.
In Stockholm, more than 200 protesters marched through the Swedish capital arriving in front of the royal palace to the strains of Swedish pop band Europe's 1986 hit "The final Countdown."
- AFP /ls
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