COPENHAGEN: Thousands of climate protesters, including Indian actor Rahul Bose and Danish model Helena Christensen, took to the chilly streets here today demanding a legally-binding treaty from their leaders who continued bitter negotiations to hammer out a pact to combat global warming.
Carrying placards reading "Climate Justice Now," "Change the Politics," and "We're not planet B," thousands of people walked towards the Bella Center, where the UN conference is being held, even as thousands others in cities around the world marched on Global Action Day.
Bollywood actor and OXFAM goodwill ambassador Rahul Bose flew down from India to join the protest and marched towards the venue of the UN climate meeting.
Other prominent faces included UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson, actress Helen Baxendale, Elder Desmond Tutu and model Helena Christensen.
The demonstrations were mostly peaceful to start with but police arrested dozens of protesters for violating laws. Some reports put the number of arrested at 200 to 400.
Speaking to a mass gathering of activists, Bose compared COP 15 to a game of soccer drawing an analogy between developed and developing nations.
He said for several years the wealthy team with best coaches had defeated the poor team.
"Then, one day it was revealed that the rich team had cheated. There was a meeting like COP 15 between both teams when the rich team said: We'll stop cheating providing you stop playing soccer," Bose said.
PTI