Citing security fears, France bans Paris climate rallies

On Wednesday evening, the French government said security concerns meant it could not allow a huge march to take place on November 29, the day before the talks start, or other actions planned for December 12, at the end of the two-week negotiations.

Islamic State jihadists have claimed a series of coordinated attacks late Friday by gunmen and suicide bombers who killed at least 129 people in scenes of carnage at a concert hall, restaurants and the national stadium.

Politico reports that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change expects the event to draw about 10,000 government representatives to the Le Bourget conference center in a northeastern Parisian suburb, plus 3,000 journalists and about 7,000 climate activists and other observers each week.

“We’re still waiting for the French authorities to tell us if they think the march in Paris, and other mobilization moments around the climate talks, can be made safe and secure”, said Jean-François Julliard, Executive Director for Greenpeace in France, according to a statement.

That is at odds with France’s prime minister Manuel Valls’ remarks that events outside the core negotiations would “undoubtedly be cancelled”.

Organizers have been preparing for the march for months, hoping for tens of thousands of people to take part. While this makes it hard to go forward with our original plans, we will still find a way for people in Paris to make the call for climate justice heard, and we encourage everyone around the world to join a Global Climate March and raise their voices louder than ever.

France was officially named at the United Nations climate talks in Poland as host of the 2015 conference created to seal a deal to tackle global warming. Thus, we will implement all our efforts to hold all the mobilizations now planned.

“We want to show that COP is not only for the government, and that civil society has always been part of the discussion”, said Aguiton.

Aquino said world leaders are “running out of time to stop an irreversible situation”, and that different leaders can contribute the maximum in stopping the problem of climate change. The agency predicts that the effects of climate change will cause an additional 25,000 deaths a year from diarrhea, heat stress, under-nutrition, and malaria between 2013 and 2015.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Fabius told Reuters that many world leaders, including President Obama, had confirmed their attendance.

Gellers is a research fellow at The Earth System Governance Project, the largest network of social scientists working on governance and global environmental change issues.