People in more than 180 countries will plant trees, install solar panels, plant organic vegetables and perform other acts to help the environment during the "Global Work Party" that has been organised largely through the Internet.

The events come as long-running efforts through the United Nations to forge a deal on tackling global warming remain gridlocked, with countries continuing to feud in talks being held in the Chinese city of Tianjin this week.

"This is a remarkable testimony to people's continuing desire for real action," Bill McKibben, co-founder of the 350.org environment organisation that is spearheading Sunday's events, told AFP by telephone from the United States.

"It is going to be, I think by a very large margin, the most widespread day of civil action in the planet's history. We hope it sends a message to our political leaders who have so completely failed to deal with the problem."

Among the more than 7,000 events expected to be held around the world, students in countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Russia and the Philippines will plant trees in their local communities.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, war refugees will plant a "Forest of Hope" outside of Goma, the capital of the country's troubled Nord-Kivu province.

Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed installed solar panels on his roof this week to promote the cause, while Iraqi students at the University of Babylon will do the same on Sunday.

More than 1,200 events are planned in the United States, including clean-ups of local creeks and workshops to help people make their homes more environmentally friendly.

In China, more than 30,000 students will help launch the "Great Green Initiative", which local organisers describe as "the largest grassroots, youth-led environmental campaign in China".

The United Nations' climate change chief, Christiana Figueres, on Thursday threw her support behind the event, saying she hoped it would help spur world leaders into making hard decisions on fighting global warming.

"I urge you to continue your inspiring work. When citizens are inspired to take action, it is easier for governments to initiate real climate change action," Figueres said in a video message posted on tcktcktck.org.

Figueres recorded the message from Tianjin, where she was overseeing the UN talks that are aimed at eventually trying to secure a post-2012 global treaty on curbing the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

World leaders failed to reach such a pact at a summit in Copenhagen last year, amid a long-running battle between developed and developing countries over who should carry the economic burden of curbing emissions.

After marathon negotiations, world leaders produced a Copenhagen Accord that set a goal of keeping additional global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

But it was a non-binding agreement that did not say how that goal would be achieved.

Scientists warn that climate change will have catastrophic impacts on the world's climate system unless global warming is kept to below 1.5-2.0 degrees Celsius.

The talks in Tianjin, which are due to end on Saturday, were meant to be aimed at rebuilding momentum and laying the foundations for progress at a major UN summit in Mexico starting on November 29.

But there has been little progress in Tianjin and environment groups say world leaders are acting far too slowly to curb emissions, which are mainly produced from the burning of fossil fuels for energy.

People can find local events for the Global Work Party, or register their own, at www.350.org and www.tcktcktck.org/101010.

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