Climate protesters bloody Wall Street Bull

Arrests were underway in New York by midday Monday as thousands of climate activists took to the streets in Gotham and other cities, launching two weeks of peaceful civil disobedience to demand immediate action to cut carbon emissions and avert an ecological disaster.

Protesters were holding placards on the fanicial street, chanting "this is a climate emergency".

In London, police arrested 135 activists from the Extinction Rebellion group as they blocked bridges and roads in the city centre, and glued themselves to cars, while protesters in Berlin halted traffic at the Victory Column roundabout.

Dutch police stepped in to arrest more than 100 climate change activists blocking a street in front of the country's national museum and there were similar protests in Austria, Spain, New Zealand and Australia.

The protests are part of an international two-week campaign coordinated by Extinction Rebellion, a campaign group that rose to prominence in April when it disrupted traffic in central London for 11 days.

Extinction Rebellion says it expects peaceful protests over the next two weeks in more than 60 cities from New Delhi to New York, to call on governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 and halt a loss of biodiversity.

Later in the day in New York, an ecological funeral procession is to be in the Washington Square section of Manhattan. Protesters are being asked to dress appropriately.