Imperial represents at climate march
Donning lab coats, students protested ahead of COP21 in Paris
Last weekend saw Imperial students along with over 50,000 people march through the streets of central London to campaign for action from governments against climate change.
Organised by Imperial College Environmental Society, over 40 Imperial students joined the student bloc of the climate march to demand that global leaders take action to tackle the growing threat of global warming.
Over 40 Imperial students joined the student bloc
Dressed in white lab coats and handing out climate change factsheets to members of the public, the Imperial cohort made their way from Park Lane down to the Houses of Parliament. With an audio speaker in the midst of our team, campaign-appropriate songs were blasted out as well as the occasional Imperial March theme.
High profile figures such as Emma Thompson, Charlotte Church and Jeremy Corbyn, adressed the crowd.
The London march was the largest of roughly 2,500 demonstrations, which included hundreds of thousands of protesters, taking place around the world ahead of a crucial UN climate summit in Paris.
Other UK cities that hosted marches include Bristol and Edinburgh.
In Paris, hundreds of pairs of shoes were placed in the Place de la Republique to replace the protesters who could not march as a result of the event being cancelled amid security concerns. A human chain was also formed by hundreds of Parisians linking arms along the route of the cancelled march.
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as the Conference of the Parties (COP21), will be held in Paris from Monday 30th November until Friday 11th December. 147 heads of state from around the world will converge on the French capital to attempt to reach a consensus on climate change.
The 21st session of COP21 has seen over 190 nations gathering in Paris, with the aim of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases amidst dangerous rises in global temperatures.
Over the two weeks of the conference, the attending parties will discuss a potential new global agreement on climate change.The last time the world discussed the possibility of a climate change deal and came close to an agreement, was in 2009 at the Copenhagen summit. The campaigners who marched hoped that there will be a successful consensus from the talks in Paris, with a firm agreement to reduce the impact of human activity. Whatever the outcome, those that marched sent a clear signal to our world leaders: they want a cleaner, safer, more just future for everyone.
