Tens of thousands march through central London to call for urgent action on climate change

Tens of thousands of people are marching through central London to demand that global leaders take urgent action to tackle climate change.

Environmental campaigners and charity leaders joined celebrities including actresses Emma Thompson and Vanessa Redgrave, singer Charlotte Church and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood to call on politicians to agree on an ambitious new climate agreement.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also joined the ranks of protesters who came from as far afield as Lancashire and Scotland to make their voices heard.

The march takes place a day ahead of world leaders from more than 50 countries meeting in Paris for United Nations' talks to secure strong deals to curb rising temperatures and shift the world to 100 per cent renewable energy.

Demonstrators gathered in Park Lane, and are marching across the capital bearing placards and banners, before finishing in Millbank later this afternoon.

Almost 2,500 events are taking place across the globe this weekend, with London's expected to be the biggest.

An event planned in Paris was cancelled following the terror attacks two weeks ago, and campaigners instead placed thousands of pairs of shoes in the city's Place de la Republique - including a pair from the Pope - as a symbolic march.

Campaigners from across the country and from all walks of life gathered for the march, from those protesting against fracking in Lancashire to others demanding clean energy.

Others came from the furthest reaches of the planet, where they live on the front lines of climate change in developing countries.

Among the indigenous people leading the march was Sina Brown-Davis, from Auckland in New Zealand, who travelled for the talks in Paris as part of a 15-strong delegation representing the Pacific Islands.

She said: "We are here today to put a face to the front-line impacts of climate change.

"Pacific people have contributed the least to climate change but we are paying the price with sea level rises and salination to our drinking water.

"It is very much a life and death struggle for people in the Pacific at the moment.

"I don't have faith in governments because numerous governments are beholden to corporations.

"I have faith in people and social movements and as an indigenous woman it is beholden on me to defend and protect Mother Earth, but I am very happy to see the solidarity of different people here from all walks of life who are concerned about climate change."