Sydney kicks off new round of global climate protests

Demonstrations being held ahead of global climate talks in Madrid

Student activists from School Strike for Climate Australia (SS4C) hold a 'Solidarity Sit-down' protest outside of the office of the Liberal Party of Australia in Sydney. EPA

Student activists from School Strike for Climate Australia (SS4C) hold a 'Solidarity Sit-down' protest outside of the office of the Liberal Party of Australia in Sydney, Australia. EPA

Students and protestors march through the streets of the Sydney CBD Sydney, Australia. Rallies held across Australia are part of a global mass day of action demanding action on the climate crisis. Getty Images

Red Rebels from Extinction Rebellion are seen during a School Strike for Climate Australia (SS4C) 'Solidarity Sit-down' outside of the office of the Liberal Party of Australia in Sydney, Australia, November 29, 2019. REUTERS

Students and protestors march through the streets of the Sydney CBD in Sydney, Australia. Rallies held across Australia are part of a global mass day of action demanding action on the climate crisis. Getty Images

Students and protestors gather Sydney Town Hall in Sydney, Australia. Rallies held across Australia are part of a global mass day of action demanding action on the climate crisis. Getty Images

Students and protestors gather Sydney Town Hall in Sydney, Australia. Rallies held across Australia are part of a global mass day of action demanding action on the climate crisis. Getty Images

Lily Campbell speaks at Sydney Town Hall in Sydney, Australia. Rallies held across Australia are part of a global mass day of action demanding action on the climate crisis. Getty Images

A student holds up a placard as another is dressed as a koala during a rally calling for action on climate change in front of the Liberal Party headquarters in Sydney. AFP

A cake is seen Sydney Town Hall in Sydney, Australia. Rallies held across Australia are part of a global mass day of action demanding action on the climate crisis. Getty Images

Students and protesters gather Sydney Town Hall in Sydney, Australia. Rallies held across Australia are part of a global mass day of action demanding action on the climate crisis. Getty Images

Protesters in smoke-covered Sydney kicked off a fresh round of global demonstrations against climate change on Friday, ahead of an international conference to address the problem beginning in Spain next week.

Hundreds of activists and schoolchildren gathered outside the offices of Australia's ruling conservative Liberal party, as protesters in several Asia-Pacific cities heeded the call to action from 16-year-old climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg.

The protests have taken on extra urgency in Australia after the country's south-east was devastated by hundreds of bushfires in recent weeks.

Brandishing placards that read "You're burning our future" and chanting "we will rise", the demonstrators turned out as Sydney was again enveloped in toxic smoke caused by the fires that have blanketed the city for much of the last month.

"My home town was on the frontlines," said student Sam Galvin who was protesting in Melbourne. "That kind of shocked me into realising that this is something that is happening and it's time I do something about it."

Six people have died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed in the fires, which scientists say has been worsened by rising temperatures.

Drought and unseasonably hot, dry and windy conditions have fuelled the unprecedented blazes.

The target of the protesters' ire was Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has denied any link between the fires and climate change while defending his support for fossil fuels.

"Our government's inaction on the climate crisis has supercharged bushfires," said school strike leader Shiann Broderick. "People are hurting. Communities like ours are being devastated. Summer hasn't even begun."

Australia, with a population of 25 million, has low carbon emissions compared with the planet's biggest polluters, but is one of the world's leading coal exporters.

"The suggestion that [in] any way shape or form that Australia, accountable for 1.3 per cent of the world's emissions, that the individual actions of Australia are impacting directly on specific fire events, whether it's here or anywhere else in the world, that doesn't bear up to credible scientific evidence," Mr Morrison claimed earlier this month.

Protests also took place in Melbourne and Tokyo, where hundreds marched through the teeming Shinjuku district to raise awareness of the issue.

"I feel a sense of crisis because almost no one in Japan is interested" in climate change, said 19-year-old student Mio Ishida.

"I was really inspired by Greta's actions" she said. "I thought if I didn't act now, it would be too late. I wanted to do something I could do."

Last month, millions of people took to the streets in nearly every major global city for a series of "climate strikes".

The latest demonstrations come as 200 nations prepare to gather in Madrid next week for a 12-day UN climate conference.

The meeting will focus largely on finalising the "rulebook" for the 2015 Paris climate treaty, which goes into effect in 2021.

Scientists have warned that efforts to cap warming to 1.5°C are failing, and that carbon emissions, which are on the rise, would need to fall 7.6 per cent a year to meet the target.

The UN has reported that greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, hit a record high last year.

The organisation has also warned that global temperatures are on pace to rise by almost four degrees by the end of the century, an increase that could make some places virtually uninhabitable.