CRI听力:Anti Climate Change Protests Staged Worldwide

Climate activists have organized mass protests in many countries in an effort to urge world leaders meeting in Copenhagen to do more to combat climate change. Shuang Feng has the details.

Saturday is the sixth day of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and is the Global Day of Action in over 100 countries in the world.

In Sydney, Australia, protesters walked through the downtown area calling on governments to reduce greenhouse emissions and help poor countries cope with climate change.

Max Phillips, one of the event organizers, said the march aims to show world leaders how deeply concerned Australians are about climate change.(www.hXen.com)

"This is about ordinary people coming out here and sending a message across the world and being part of a global day of action on climate change. So, this is really the ordinary Australians' chance to send a message to Copenhagen."

In Manila, Philippines, members of Greenpeace unfurled a large banner that read "Climate Action Now," while shouting slogans and beating drums.

Ali Obusan is one of the climate activists from Greenpeace Philippines.

"The commitments that U.S. President Barrack Obama has committed is far below what the science demands. The science demands that developed countries as a whole should commit to 40 percent reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. But the 17 percent the US has committed, based on 1990 levels, actually just translates to about 4 percent. So 4 percent is a far cry from the 40 percent that is needed from developed countries as an aggregate."

Meanwhile, traditional drummers gathered outside an ancient tower in Beijing in a protest organized by Greenpeace China.

Organizer Liu Shuang said they were trying to send a message to world leaders that it's urgent to save the climate.

"By beating drums here, we are trying to tell world leaders attending the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference that there is not much time left for us to save the climate. We must act now to reach a strong deal during the conference in order to avoid climate disasters."

Negotiators in Copenhagen are trying to agree to a global pact to reduce greenhouse emissions and help poor countries cope with climate change.

A draft proposal was sent around on Friday to the 192-nation conference, although it set no firm figures on financing or cutting greenhouse gas emissions. And the negotiations on sharing the burden are likely to continue down to the wire until the arrival of the world's leaders next week.

Shuang Feng, CRI news.