Young activists rallied for climate action on Friday, staging protests from New Zealand and Japan to Germany and the Democratic Republic of Congo to demand that rich countries pay for the damage global warming is inflicting upon the poor.
The protests take place six weeks before this year's U.N. climate summit, known as COP27, where vulnerable countries will push for compensation for climate-related destruction to homes, infrastructure and livelihoods.
Around 400 young activists gathered in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa, chanting slogans such as "Act for Africa, protect our planet" and carrying cardboard signs reading "Climate Justice" and "Climate SOS" while walking on the shoulder of a busy thoroughfare. Citing the catastrophic flooding in Pakistan that displaced millions of people this year, one speaker told the crowd, "The rains came from the sky but the floods came from the greed in America and your leaders addiction to oil."
"The Least Developed Countries are bearing the brunt of the devastating consequences of climate change," Senegal's environment minister Abdou Karim Sall told a meeting in Dakar last week.The United States and 27-country European Union have historically resisted steps that could require rich nations to pay compensation for causing climate change.A top climate adviser to U.S.