LONDON (Reuters) - Police have arrested 20 environmental protesters after they climbed on to the roof of the Houses of Parliament to demand greater government action on climate change.
The Metropolitan Police said on Monday that the demonstrators were held on suspicion of trespassing on a protected site after they climbed down following the latest security breach at parliament.
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace said 55 of its volunteers took part in the stunt to call for a "new style of politics in Britain" when MPs return from their summer break on Monday. About 20 protesters remain on the roof.
"With just 60 days go until the critical climate summit in Copenhagen -- which faces a very real chance of failure as things stand -- Britain has yet to show true commitment to making the process a success," Greenpeace said in a statement.
"We need politicians who are thinking about the next generation, not just the next election."
Video footage on Greenpeace's website showed protesters using ladders to reach the top of Westminster Hall, an 11th century landmark next to the House of the Commons.
They unfurled bright yellow banners saying "Change the politics - Save the climate."
Greenpeace said the remaining protesters plan to stay until MPs return to work later on Monday. They said they told police who they were and what they planned to do before scaling the building.
In February 2008, protesters opposed to the expansion of Heathrow Airport scaled the roof of parliament and fathers' rights campaigners pelted then Prime Minister Tony Blair with purple powder inside the House of Commons in 2004.
The government's climate change adviser will on Monday say Britain needs to accelerate its plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions to have any hope of meeting its carbon reduction targets.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which advises the British government on cutting emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, said the recession exaggerated its progress toward meeting its carbon budgets and could slow efforts to drive long-term cuts.
(Reporting by Peter Griffiths and David Milliken)
