PARIS—The latest from the much-anticipated U.N. climate conference that gets underway in Paris on Monday (all times local):
7:30 p.m.
France’s interior minister says that 208 people were detained after clashes with riot police on the eve of the start of a critical climate conference, and that 174 of them were being held for possible charges.
French President Francois Hollande said the violence on Sunday was “scandalous” both because the clashes were caused by “disruptive elements” that have nothing to do with environmental defenders and because the Place de la Republique has been a memorial square for the 130 victims of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks.
Police used tear gas to stop the advance of groups of several hundred people throwing projectiles that included memorial candles, police said.
“These individuals have no place and that’s why everything will be done to move them aside,” Hollande said from Brussels.
6:25 p.m.
President Barack Obama says American leadership is helping the global fight against climate change.
As he left for the climate conference in Paris Sunday, Obama wrote a Facebook that the U.S. has shown it’s possible to make environmental gains while creating jobs and expanding the economy.
Obama will try to reassure world leaders in Paris that the U.S. can deliver on its own commitments.
He says the goal in Paris is a long-term framework for more global reductions, with each nation setting targets that other countries can verify.
He says leaders will try to support “the most vulnerable countries” in expanding clean energy and “adapting to the effects of climate changes that we can no longer avoid.”
6:05 p.m.
A well-known climate pressure group took its distance from a violent demonstration in Paris, saying the protesters were “unaffiliated with the climate movement.”
There were at least 100 arrests after the clash between riot police and groups of protesters, some wearing masks, but no injuries, police chief Michel Cadot said.
On the eve of a climate conference, protesters threw glass bottles and even candles at police in the Place de la Republique, after two peaceful demonstrations earlier in the day in response to a ban on marches due to France’s state of emergency imposed after the Nov. 13 attacks.
In a statement, the climate group 350.org said that the violent protesters violated the “nonviolent pledge that every group involved in the climate coalition” agreed to.
The statement expressed hope that France wouldn’t clamp down further on freedoms during the conference following the incident.
5:30 p.m.
Climate change negotiations in Paris have started with a moment of silence and commemoration for the victims of the attacks in the French capital.
Negotiations started at 5 p.m. local time Sunday in Paris. After the moment of silence, Peruvian environment minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who headed last year’s negotiations, said a climate agreement is a good way to overcome the horrors of the Paris attacks.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, president of the Paris conference, said the goal is an ambitious agreement that all countries can agree on.
“I am confident that you will be able to retrieve a good result,” Fabius told negotiators. “Every day we have to make progress. No subject shall be left aside.”
He said negotiators owe it to the world to finish negotiations in an orderly time frame.
4:45 p.m.
The Paris police chief says that about 100 people have been detained after a protest seeking a global climate deal turned violent.
Michel Cadot told reporters that police identified about 200 or 300 people who violated a ban on all protests under the country’s state of emergency. The state of emergency was declared because of recent extremist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.
Cadot said Sunday about 100 people who were found to have projectiles or other suspicious objects were detained.
Police fired numerous rounds of tear gas on protesters to disperse them.
The protesters were gathering ahead of critical global warming talks outside Paris.
