Thousands descend on downtown Ottawa for climate change rally

Thousands of people descended on downtown Ottawa Sundayfor a climate change rally that was billed as one of the largest the city hadever seen.

The 100% Possible climate march, which calls on governments to move toward 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050, was one of about 1,700 marches heldworldwide on Sundayon the eve ofthe upcoming Paris climate change summit.

• Justin Trudeauoptimistic heading into Paris climate change talks
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The Sunday march wasorganized by a consortium of environmental groups, including Ecology Ottawa and the World Wildlife Fund.

"You know, this march has religious groups, it has unions, ithas environmental groups, it has First Nations," said Sabrina Bowman ofGreenPAC, a group that helped support candidates with environmental credentials in the October federal election, on Saturday.

"This is a real moment of galvanization."

Marchers gathered at Ottawa City Hall at 12:30 p.m. and headed towardto Parliament Hill around1:30 p.m.

At 4 p.m., organizers tweeted 25,000 people had participated.