A skyscraper climber dubbed the "French Spiderman" scaled the 52-story New York Times building in Manhattan Thursday in a stunt to promote public awareness on global warming.

Alain Robert, reputed to have climbed 70 tall buildings around the world, unfurled a banner with the words ""Global warming kills more people than a 9/11 every week" upon reaching the top of the building. Police waiting for him at the rooftop arrested him for still unknown charges.

The 45-year-old Robert, who admits to be partly disabled and suffers from vertigo, easily climbed the Times building without any harness by holding on to slats covering the façade of the new structure. Hundreds of people on the street watched while construction workers across the Times cheered him.

A city councilman mocked Robert's stunt, saying it distracted New York police from more pressing matters and endangered the public. ""If he wants to climb something, he can climb the walls inside his jail cell at Rikers," Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. was quoted by CBSNews.com as saying.