Melbourne rally for climate change action attracts 30,000 people
Date
September 21, 2014
Organisers of an international climate rally say the Melbourne leg of the global demonstration has seen 30,000 protesters converge on Melbourne's Treasury Gardens on Sunday afternoon.
Australia's People's Climate March is one of around 2500 rallies taking place around the globe ahead of a United Nations summit on climate change in New York next week.
World leaders will meet on Tuesday where Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop will represent Australia.
Melburnians turn out to urge action on climate change.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said it is important he stay in Canberra but will head to the US the next day for a UN Security Council meeting on terrorism.
"This is a clear testament that Australians want climate action regardless of what Tony Abbott and his government are doing right now," GetUp! Campaigns chief of staff Erin McCallum said of the march on Sunday.
"The key message today is we're doing what he won't, we're standing up, we're taking action as consumers, as citizens, as Australians around the world and all around Australia today.
A 100 per cent renewable energy target and putting an end to coal mining were hot topics on the agenda at the rally, which ended at Treasury Gardens after winding through the CBD.
Professor Tim Flannery, who also addressed those gathered, said Australia had to take action before it was too late. "This is not some sort of ethereal issue," he said.
Among the international stars taking part in the event overseas is actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Comedian Andrew 'Lehmo' Lehmann spoke in Melbourne, and noted that, while New York got DiCaprio, "you get me".
Lehmann said those that had attended the rally were "the ripple that starts a tidal wave of action around the world".
Greens leader Christine Milne said Australia must send a strong message to Mr Abbott that the time for a "conversation" was over.
"We won't stand for it, that's what we have to convey to Tony Abbott and leaders around the world," she said. "The reign of fossil fuels is over, what we have to do is end the reign of the fossil fools who keep it going."
Labor's spokesman on climate change, Mark Butler, said Australia, being the largest polluter in the OECD per head of population, had to show the world it was still committed to its climate change responsibility.
"We have a responsibility, and it's in our national interest to be a participant in those global climate affairs so that we can grasp the enormous opportunities of a clean energy future," he told reporters.
He said various G20 meetings leading into the leaders' summit in November should include climate change as an agenda item.
"This is an economic, social and environmental challenge, and a very serious series of meetings without addressing climate change is simply missing out on that opportunity and that challenge," Mr Butler said.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbourne-rally-for-climate-change-action-attracts-30000-people-20140921-10jxwl.html#ixzz3DvtPIBaC
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