What to expect from the COP21 climate talks in Paris

Even as world leaders, in a “very hopeful moment”, descend upon the city in hopes of reaching an agreement to halt climate change, the main variable setting apart the 2015 Paris Climate Conference are the realities of global security, according to Charles Sennott, the founder and executive director of the GroundTruth Project.

Before flying out to Paris, Mr Obama said world leaders would show their resolve to stand up to terrorism.

The UN’s much-anticipated COP21 – a 12-day climate summit that promises to reduce chronic health issues, quash terrorist groups, usher in social justice and all-around save the planet – gets underway today in Paris.

Mr Corbyn told the crowds: “Those who are sitting around the tables in Paris have an enormous opportunity in front of them”.

“Hope for the enlightenment of all peoples, that we are just a strand in the web of life, that what we do to the environment, we do to ourselves”, said Bishop Pabillo. “Do what you have been sent there to do on our behalf”.

Environmental campaigners and charity leaders were joined by celebrities including actresses Emma Thompson and Vanessa Redgrave, singer Charlotte Church and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood as they called on politicians to agree on an ambitious new climate agreement.

More than 140 world leaders are gathering in Paris for high-stakes talks seeking a long-term deal to slow man-made global warming.

About 2,500 events are taking place around the world this weekend, with London’s billed as the largest. Protesters also plan to leave scores of shoes on Place de la Republique square to symbolize the thousands left frustrated in their plans to march.

Climate Council’s Professor Tim Flannery addressed the crowd before they marched, saying a successful outcome at the United Nations summit was vital.

“This is the problem of our generation and the next”, said Katia Herault, a climate protester in London who had only a Nemo costume protecting her from pouring rain and howling winds.

French police detained scores of protesters after violent clashes in central Paris on Sunday though, a day before the official start of conference that aims to tackle global warming. Now we need governments to keep up the momentum and stop propping up the dying fossil fuel industries.

“We are there right now. We have to stop it”.

Paris police chief Michel Cadot said that a group of 200 or 300 people violated a ban on protests under the country’s state of emergency.

One hundred fifty world leaders are gathered on the outskirts of Paris; in total, 195 countries are represented.

As people got into the Christmas mood at the nearby Winter Wonderland attraction, hordes of passionate campaigners marched down Piccadilly waving banners, placards and flags while Radiohead star Thom Yorke played a DJ set aboard a Greenpeace float decked with polar bears.

Nuns protested in South Korea, people demonstrated in the tiny Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands and the French territory New Caledonia, and in Kenya they marched across the equator.

About 683,000 people attended the rallies around the world, said Sam Barrat, a spokesman for Avaaz, one of the organisers.