The run-up to the 54th annual celebration of the environment,
officially marked on Saturday, has included a week of
conservation and clean-up activities around the world, and
festivals were due to begin in Rome and Boston on Friday.
Thousands were expected to gather in London on Friday to begin
four days of events known as the "Big One", organised by the
Extinction Rebellion activist group. A rally was to be staged in
Washington urging President Joe Biden to commit to ending fossil
fuel use.
On Saturday, volunteers will also begin major clean-up campaigns
at Lake Dal in India's Srinigar and Florida's hurricane-hit Cape
Coral.
On Thursday, Biden pledged to increase U.S. funding to help
developing countries fight climate change and curb deforestation
in Brazil's Amazon rainforest during a meeting with leaders from
the world's largest economies.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told countries attending
Biden's Major Economies Forum that "a quantum leap in climate
action" was required to limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees
Celsius. He warned in a recorded Earth Day message that "we seem
hellbent on destruction".
Earth Day this year follows weeks of extreme weather with
temperatures hitting a record 45.4 degrees Celsius (113.7
Fahrenheit) in Thailand and another punishing heatwave in India,
where at least 13 people died of heatstroke at a ceremony last
weekend.
Scientists warned this week that killer heatwaves were putting
"unprecedented burdens" on India's agriculture, economy and
public health, and undermining the country's long-term efforts
to reduce poverty, inequality and illness.
Average global temperatures could hit record highs this year or
in 2024, driven by climate change and the anticipated return of
the "El Nino" weather phenomenon, climate scientists said on
Thursday.
(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by William Mallard)
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