More than 30,000 protesters gathered in South Korea’s capital in broiling heat on Saturday (September 7), demanding more aggressive action by the government to combat global warming, Reuters reports.

 

With temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), protesters young and old marched in the country’s biggest demonstration so far this year, snarling traffic in central Seoul, which was under a heat advisory.

 

Organised by the 907 Climate Justice March Group Committee, the protest followed a ruling last month by South Korea’s top court that the nation’s climate change law fails to protect basic human rights and lacks targets to shield future generations.

 

South Korea, which aims to be carbon-neutral by 2050, is the biggest coal polluter after Australia among the Group of 20 big economies, with a slow adoption of renewable energy.

 

Protest organising committee member Kim Eun-jung said the demonstrators chose the popular Gangnam financial and shopping area this year, to get their voices heard by the many big corporations there that the group blames for carbon emissions.