Erstellt am: 29. 11. 2015 - 19:03 Uhr

Climate March in Vienna

It's official - Batman, some raindrops and a Samba band agree: We need climate action now.

Demonstrations were held across the globe today to demand action to stop climate change, ahead of the climate summit that gets underway in Paris in a few hours.

Chris Cummins

In all there were more than 2,000 events held with two of the biggest in Sydney and London, which attracted a record 50,000 people. The climate march had been banned in Paris itself because of security fears following the terror attacks in November and an authorized demo ended in ugly scenes with anarchists reportedly throwing bottles at the police and the security forces replying with tear gas.

There was also a very peaceful and good-humoured demonstration in Vienna – held with the motto System Change, Not Climate Change.

Police estimated the attendance at only 900. "It seems Austrians don’t care that much about climate change because we are not suffering as much as other regions yet," suggested one demonstrator called Christine, who was Holding an Attac flag "but climate change is a real threat for us all."

"Actually I was really shocked that there are so few people here," admitted Sophie, who had braved the cold with two friends. "It’s important we show we care. I think it is kind of sad. Maybe there wasn’t enough advertising of the event. Or maybe people just don’t care."

Chris Cummins

Others suggested the anti-capitalist undertones might have put off a broader coalition of climate activists. Many activists see entrepreneurship as a solution and might have been alienated by the slogans such as: "Our climate is none of your business."

But since it was Vienna it was attended by some colourful and eccentric folks.

Chris Cummins

Luke came dressed as Batman: "It's a bit in jest but I am the father of a young daughter and I want her to have a good future, so climate change is no joke. Batman is a hero and with the world leaders gathering in Paris we need heroes. Batman wants 100% renewable energy for the batmobile. If he was mayor of Gotham City he'd light the whole city with renewables. He wants no more coal, no more fossil fuels and he cares about the survival of our forests and our oceans. But right now he just wants a little more hope."

Chris Cummins

"You can’t see what we are? We’re raindrops! It’s all about the climate today and we are fighting for new policies to tackle change. When climate change hits, the rainfall will become more extreme. We will have more flooding. We are warning about extreme weather."

Chris Cummins

Johannes referred to the slogan of the demonstration: "I’m here to protest for better solutions to tackle climate change and also to point out we don’t have high hopes that these solutions can be found through the process that is about to get underway at the climate change conference in Paris. We need real change. We need a system that is not so heavily based on the market. Our system is built on the idea of endless growth, but we can’t grow forever."