Activists to rally for mass climate march in Madrid

Thousands of activists from around globe will simultaneously hit streets of Mrid and Santiago on Friday to demand urgent action on climate crisis from world leers attending COP25 summit.

main march will take place in Mrid on sidelines of UN climate conference, with a simultaneous rally in Chilean capital, which h been due to host 12-day garing but was forced to pull out due to massive protests.

Teen eco-warrior Greta Thunberg -- who refuses to fly because of carbon emissions involved -- was also expected to join rally after making a nearly three-week journey across Atlantic by catamaran.

She was mobbed by journalists as she arrived in Mrid on Friday morning following a 10-hour overnight train trip from Lisbon.

"I successfully mand to sneak into Mrid this morning! I don't think anyone saw me," 16-year-old Swede tweeted after.

COP25 summit opened on Monday with a stark warning from UN about "utterly inequate" efforts of world's major ecomies to curb carbon pollution, with protesters due to deliver ir own mess when march begins at 1700 GMT.

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Under slogan " world has woken up to climate emergency", tens of thousands of activists are expected to join five-kilometer (three-mile) march from Mrid's Atocha train station which will feature a significant number of Chilean groups.

Thunberg, who has become famous for galvanizing a generation of youngsters to fight for environment, h been en route to Chile when venue was changed, forcing her to hitch a ride across US and back to Europe.

Oscar-winning Spanish actor Javier Bardem, a vocal environmental activist, will also be at protest, which will feature speeches, music and cultural performances.

"We kw it will be massive, we hope re will be hundreds of thousands of people in street demanding urgent action," march spokesman Pablo Chamorro told reporters.

"2019 has, without doubt, been year in which people have woken up about climate." Friday's march is going to be "an important global moment", said Estefania Gonzalez, spokeswoman for Civil Society for Climate Action (SCAC) representing more than 150 Chilean and international groups.

"I come from Chile, a country where an avoco tree has more right to water than a person," she told reporters.

furious protests gripping Chile over social and ecomic inequality were "directly related to environmental crisis", she said of most severe wave of unrest since Augusto Pichet's dictatorship ended nearly 30 years ago.

"Today, climate action means social equality, it's t possible to have social equality without environmental equality," she said. "Speeches are t eugh, we need concrete actions that target climate ambition that will resolve se problems."

SCAC has been driving force behind a week-long Social Summit for Climate Action, which begins on Saturday and runs parallel to COP25, involving hundreds of events, lectures and workshops.

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Indigeus groups will also have a visible presence, with Juan Antonio Correa of Minga Indigena collective saying ir lands and peoples were " first to be affected by climate change".

"Our tritional and historic practices and relationship that indigeus people have with Mor Earth is an alternative and a way in which modern society can face up to climate crisis," he said.

"We are trying to eng and bring about concrete actions to improve situation for everyone, t just for indigeus peoples but for all of society." In ir manifesto, groups involved in march dress a clear mess to decision-makers from nearly 200 countries attending UN summit.

"We demand that governments participating in COP25 recognize current climate inaction and state that insufficient ambition of ir agreements will le planet to a disastrous global warming scenario," y wrote.

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dressing nations that signed 2015 Paris Agreement, y said it was "irresponsible" that just a year before treaty becomes operational, re was still "emissions reduction plan that is compatible with scientific estimates".

"We return to streets.. demanding real, ambitious measures from politicians from all around globe meeting for COP25."