Obama heads to Paris with hope for climate change deal

President Barack Obama boards Air Force One for a trip to the COP21 climate change conference in Paris, on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md.

“Will the attacks in Paris have an effect of galvanizing the world community, or will it become an excuse for some to maybe not be as committed as they could to this process?”

More than 140 world leaders are gathering around Paris for high-stakes climate talks that…

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“Hear our voices! We are here!” cried the demonstrators ahead of the 195-nation UN summit being held just outside Paris, which aims to strike the first truly global accord to limit greenhouse emissions and avert a global climate disaster.

The colourful human chain passed near the Bataclan concert hall where 90 people were killed in the suicide bombings and shootings.

Meanwhile, French police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators on Paris’ Place de la Republique square in an early test of the authorities’ determination to ban public demonstrations during the global climate negotiations.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 174 people were jailed for possible charges.

In the city of Adelaide, South Australia, a rally of about 5,000 people highlighted the impact that climate change has on health, food security and development.

Thousands of protesters in Brisbane participated in a rally.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: We are here offering the people of France, the people of Paris, our most heartfelt condolences and our unflinching solidarity. “That’s why we are here”, said Incarnacion Florin. “It must make a difference”.

“They have a chance to come up with a grand bargain, a global deal that allows us to actually save the planet from catastrophic climate change, to kickstart that action”, the deputy director of Avaaz told BBC.

But his climate action plan has run into stiff opposition from Republicans who control Congress. They say his commitment to reduce emissions from USA power plants would cost thousands of American jobs and raise electricity costs for businesses and families.

Thompson said that climate change, once seen as a fringe cause, was now “the issue of the 21st century”.

Despite the ban, thousands had gathered in central Paris and formed a human chain along the route of the long-planned protest march, before being dispersed.

About 4,000 people held a rally in the German capital, marching from Berlin’s train station to the Brandenburg Gate to listen to speeches and music.

The protesters called on the delegates at the Paris conference to set ambitious targets. He said he and the French President had agreed that “failure to reach an agreement was not an option and would have disastrous consequences”.