KATOWICE, Poland -- Thousands of people from around the world marched Saturday through the southern Polish city that's hosting this year's U.N. climate talks, demanding that their governments take tougher action to curb global warming.
Protesters included farmers from Latin America, environmentalists from Asia, students from the United States and families from Europe, many of whom said climate change is already affecting their lives.
"Climate change is the thing that frightens me the most," said Michal Dabrwoski from Warsaw, whose young daughter was with him at the march. "I'm a father and it's kind of crucial that she will have a decent life."
Marchers gathered in one of Katowice's main squares before setting off for the conference center where delegates from almost 200 countries are haggling over the fine print of the 2015 Paris accord to fight climate change.
Some protesters were dressed as endangered orangutans while others wore masks to highlight the air pollution in Katowice, which lies at the heart of Poland's coal mining region of Silesia.
Protesters wearing polar bear costumes were expelled from the march after suggesting that fossil fuels should be replaced by nuclear power, a technology that many environmentalists oppose.
Chanting "Wake up! It's time to save our home!" and holding banners including one reading "Make the planet great again," protesters marched through Katowice accompanied by a heavy police presence that included officers on horseback.
The March for Climate passed largely peacefully, though three people were detained after a small scuffle with police, a city spokesman said.
Earlier Saturday, environmental groups had complained that some of their activists were being turned back at the Polish border or deported. One Belgian activist was allowed to enter the country after her country's ambassador intervened with Polish authorities.
Poland has introduced temporary random identity checks ahead of the U.N. climate conference, arguing they were needed for security.
Inside the U.N. meeting, negotiators were concluding the first week of talks, which are focused on finalizing the Paris rulebook that determines how signatories to the 2015 deal record and report their greenhouse-gas emissions.
Scientists have been warning that drastic action will be needed to achieve the Paris accord's most ambitious target of keeping global warming below 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
Government ministers will begin arriving Monday in Katowice to try to break deadlocks on particularly sensitive issues.
Environmental groups want countries to send a strong signal that they're ready for more ambitious action in the years ahead, but some protesters Saturday felt that governments would not do enough to resolve climate-change issues.
"I've had enough of just sitting and looking at politicians deciding things for us. It's time for us to tell them what we want and to start a grass-roots revolution," said Anna Zalikowska. "This movement is going to grow and there's going to be more of us."
A Section on 12/09/2018