Worldwide climate rallies draw hundreds of thousands

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in central Paris and formed a human chain along the route of a long-planned protest march that was banned by the French government in a security crackdown following the Nov. 13 Paris attacks.

[...] violence erupted as the day progressed with several hundred people, some of them masked, throwing objects at riot police blockading the square in a bid to break through, and desecrating a memorial made of flowers and candles for the 130 victims of the attacks.

President Francois Hollande denounced the violence by a minority as "scandalous," both because the clashes were caused by "disruptive elements" that have nothing to do with environmental activists and because they occurred at Place de la Republique, which has been a memorial square for the victims Paris attacks.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls also denounced the violence in a tweet, saying that respecting the square, used to pay homage to attack victims, "is to respect the memory of victims."

Thousands of people took to the streets of several Spanish cities to demand a commitment from world leaders to halt climate change in what organizers are calling the largest pro-environment mobilization in Spain to date.

Others around Spain were organized by the Alliance for the Climate and call on world leaders to reach a fair, ambitious and binding agreement to avoid the worst consequences of climate change and accelerate the transition toward renewable sources of energy by 2050.

Actress Emma Thompson, designer Vivienne Westwood and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn are among demonstrators urging politicians to strike a binding agreement at climate talks in Paris.

Corbyn told the crowd that the talks were an enormous opportunity to tackle pollution, climate change, inequality, environmental refugees, war refugees and resources wars.