LONDON (REUTERS, DPA) - Climate change protesters blocked traffic across London's government district of Westminster on Monday (Oct 7) as they launched two weeks of peaceful civil disobedience to call for urgent action to curb carbon emissions.

By late morning, police said they had arrested 135 activists from the Extinction Rebellion group.

The group expects 10,000 people will come to the capital from across Britain to join the two-week protest, which is part of a coordinated international movement. There were similar climate protests on Monday in Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, Madrid, Sydney and other cities around the world.

Large crowds of protesters blocked some of Westminster's largest and busiest roads, bridges and squares, carrying banners with slogans such as "Climate change denies our children a future unless we act now".

Banging drums and chanting, they took over the tourist hotspot of Trafalgar Square and marched down the Mall, the broad tree-lined avenue that leads to Buckingham Palace.

Some activists glued or chained themselves to cars parked in the middle of roads or to street lamps, making it hard for police officers to detain them.

"We're here because the government is not doing enough on the climate emergency," said protester Lizzy Mansfield. "We only get one planet and so we're here to try and defend it."

Extinction Rebellion came to prominence in April when it disrupted traffic in central London for 11 days. More than 1,000 activists were arrested at that time, of whom 850 were prosecuted for various public disorder offences. So far, 250 have been convicted.

The police have adopted more proactive tactics to deal with the group this time.

Last Saturday, officers used a battering ram to gain entry to a building in south London where the activists had been storing equipment for use during the two-week protest. Eight people were arrested during the raid.

Extinction Rebellion said the arrests showed that British authorities considered the group a significant movement.

Early on Monday, a group of activists locked themselves to a mock nuclear missile outside the Ministry of Defence, calling on the government to redirect funds spent on Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent towards policies to combat climate change. "Climate not Trident" read a banner by the fake missile.

Richard Dyer, a retired doctor from Scotland who was taking part in the street protests, said he regarded it as an extension of his medical career because climate change was the biggest threat yet to public health.

"People in the environmental movement and climate scientists have been trying to persuade the public and government to take serious action and nothing has happened," he said. "We want to use any way we can to make people and governments sit up and notice."

ARRESTS ELSEWHERE

Police in Amsterdam on Monday also began forcibly removing climate change activists who blocked a major street downtown, arresting 50 after they defied orders to move their demonstration onto a nearby square.

Traffic around the city centre was disrupted as about 900 Extinction Rebellion protesters gathered on Stadhouderskade, in front of the Netherlands' national museum, to demand more action to tackle climate change.

Starting before dawn, the protesters in Amsterdam held pamphlets saying "SORRY that we blocked the road, but this is an emergency". "The climate crisis is not being taken seriously enough by politics, and also not by the companies. That's why I joined,"said one protester, who gave his name as Christiaan.

Protesters earlier linked arms to form a barricade at either end of the block, and set up tents in the centre of the street. Organisers had said they intended to stay for weeks.

City authorities had granted the group a licence to demonstrate on the condition that it not block traffic.

In Australia, hundreds of climate demonstrators blocked roads on Monday afternoon, with police in Sydney arresting 30 protesters who had refused police orders to clear the road near Central Station.

"Alleged offences committed range from obstructing traffic to disobey reasonable direction," police said in a statement. There were similar protests at Melbourne's city centre and in Brisbane, but reporters covering the event said protesters were generally peaceful.

Melbourne activist Miriam Robinson told Australian Associated Press that protesters felt they had to "get right up in people's grills" by disrupting city traffic to convince the government to take firmer action on climate change.

Not all of the Extinction Rebellion protests saw arrests.

In Berlin, dozens of climate change activists blocked traffic at a main square, defying almost freezing temperatures.

Activists sang "Solid as a rock, rooted as a tree" as they gathered at dawn at the iconic Victory Column near Berlin's Tiergarten park.

At sunrise some were sleeping in insulated bags in the middle of the roundabout as police on motorbikes drove by.

No arrests were made and the protest remained peaceful.

Police blocked the five avenues that converge on the roundabout to prevent cars and buses from reaching the demonstration, which would have resulted in traffic chaos during the morning rush hour. By midday, the protest had swelled as hundreds of people had joined.

Activists and the ecologist Green party have been outraged by plans to introduce a carbon dioxide price of 10 euros (S$15.18) a tonne for transport and heating in buildings from 2021 and gradually increase it to 35 euros in 2025.