Up to 40,000 people packed into Amsterdam in pouring rain on Sunday for what is being described as the biggest pro-climate march ever to take place in the Netherlands.

Dam square, where the demonstrators gathered, became so full at one point that police asked the marchers to move off to Museumplein earlier than planned, to avoid overcrowding.

The organisers, including environmental campaign groups Greenpeace and Milieudefensie, said the turnout showed that people want the government to take action on climate change now.

‘The big polluters should pay their share to ensure a safe future for everyone,’ Milieudefensie said.

Scepticism

Meanwhile research carried out by the demographic research institute Nidi shows that the Dutch have become less sceptical about the reasons behind climate change.

The number of people agreeing that ‘stories about the earth warming up are exaggerated’ has fallen from 24% to 11%. Almost six in 10 people are now extremely worried about the earth warming up, 23 percentage points up on 10 years ago, Nidi said.

The research also shows that scepticism about climate change within the ruling VVD and anti-Islam PVV has more than halved. In particular, just one in five PVV supporters now believe reports of climate change are exaggerated.