Chile’s president  Sebastián Piñera has cancelled the Cop 25 climate summit in December due to political unrest in the country. 

Sebastián Piñera made the announcement on Wednesday after 12 days of demonstrations which has seen millions protesting in the streets over economic inequality.

In a brief statement, he said: “This has been a very difficult decision, a decision that causes us a lot of pain, because we fully understand the importance of Apec and Cop 25 for Chile and for the world."

The Chile climate talks were expected to focus on the rapidly deteriorating condition of the world’s oceans, as well as spur momentum going into a fresh round of national pledges on emissions cuts next year.

The Cop 25 programme was due to run between 2 and 13 December.