![Participants in Poland's Independence Day march organised by nationalist groups wave Polish flags in Warsaw, Poland on November 11, 2023 [Wojtek Radwanski/AFP]](/Uploads/Images/News/2023/11/Image-2057-20231112072840.jpeg)
Thousands joined a march by nationalist groups in Poland’s capital Warsaw in what organisers described as the “largest patriotic demonstration in Europe”.
Participants carried Poland’s white-and-red flag and some burned flares and held Celtic crosses as they marched along a route leading from the city centre to the National Stadium on Saturday.
The event, held every year as Poland celebrates its Independence Day holiday, took place less than a month after the pro-European opposition secured a majority in parliamentary elections.
While many patriotic events take place across the nation of 38 million each year, the yearly Independence March has come to dominate news coverage because it has sometimes been marred by xenophobic slogans and violence.
The event has, in the past drawn, far-right sympathisers from other European countries, including Hungary and Italy. Among those taking part this year was Paul Golding, the leader of Britain First, a small far-right party in the United Kingdom.
Football supporters were prominent among the marchers, some holding banners with far-right slogans. Anti-abortion rights groups were also present at the event, where Christian symbols were on display.
Police removed climate protesters who placed themselves along the route of the march.
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.