Students strike to demand action on climate change

After submitting a list of demands to council, Marlborough’s young climate activists now have their sights on getting changes from central government.

The activists will be at today’s nationwide School Strike 4 Climate and are encouraging the wider public and businesses to turn up and support the cause.

The strike follows a week of action on climate change which was months in the planning.

Last week the Climate Youth Action Team submitted a list of 10 required actions to the Marlborough District Council. These included increasing recycling, encouraging hospitality businesses to reduce their waste and more bike lanes.

Year 13 Marlborough Girls College student Shannon Mclean said the group met with Mayor John Leggett, council chief executive Mark Wheeler and assets and services Manager Richard Coningham to discuss climate change.

‘‘They said a lot of the things we’re demanding are in the plan,’’ Mclean said.

‘‘We understand that some of these things might be in a paper copy that they’re trying to put in but we want a bit more action to be started.’’

The students also asked for better communication with the public, as many of council’s environmental policies were ‘‘hidden in a 250 page report’’, Mclean said.

She said the meeting with council had encouraged the group to continue the fight against climate change.

‘‘We’re happy with the approach but I guess there’s nothing that really came out of it,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s just given us more momentum to go forward and keep doing what we’re doing.’’

Climate change was also a key topic at Tuesday’s Mayoral Debate. Mayor John Leggett said at the debate he would be happy to attend today’s strike, but the council had decided to hold off on declaring a climate emergency.

Mayoral candidate Jamie Arbuckle told the debate the council should declare a climate emergency.

The third mayoral candidate Rick Ireland received groans from the audience when he referred to climate change as a ‘‘fad that’s rolling through’’ and ‘‘not based in reality’’.

Year 13 Marlborough Boys Student George Varney said while Ireland’s opinions were discouraging, at least he was transparent.

Varney led one of the week’s key actions on Tuesday, a day of tree planting with six local primary schools.

‘‘It’s basically to show that we’re taking action rather than just pointing the finger,’’ Varney said.

With the help of a Rotary Club the six schools planted a total of 250 trees, including 80 at Varney’s