Thousands gather for climate

Two years after the first School Strike 4 Climate actions, Wellington students took to the streets again yesterday, disappointed to be returning with the same message and the same demands.

‘‘When they declared a climate emergency, they should have started changing,’’ said Naomi George, a 10-yearold from Thorndon School.

Students needed to keep this up until the Government acted, she said. While Covid-19 was a real and pressing worry, it was quickly becoming an excuse for inaction in other areas.

Sorcha Carr, 19, agreed it was frustrating to be back still asking for meaningful change. ‘‘We’re not having the conversations that we should be,’’ she said, despite hopes having being high for the Labour-led government to take action. ‘‘We’re sitting around waiting for disasters to happen.’’

They were two of the thousands of students across the nation who skipped school for a cause yesterday, trying to make up for the Covid-induced cancellation of last year’s protest.

The Wellington crowd was a smaller one than in 2019, when organisers reported 40,000 protesters moving from Civic Square to the steps of Parliament at one of the marches. This time, they only just filled Civic Square and there were only 4000 or so in front of the nation’s legislature.

Nationally, the movement had six key demands but in Wellington, the focus was on two. The first was a call to invest in a ‘‘just transition’’ by investing in green infrastructure and vehicles, while ensuring those previously working in unsustainable industries are retrained for greener jobs.

The second was honouring New Zealand’s relationship to its Pacific neighbours by acknowledging they would be more affected by climate change and promising to help them.

Climate Change Minister and Wellington resident James Shaw received a list of the students’ demands and tried to convince them that change was happening, noting the Zero Carbon Bill had come into effect since the strikes in 2019. ‘‘You did that,’’ Shaw told the crowd.

But he acknowledged change was too slow. ‘‘You know better than I do this is not moving fast enough.’’

In Auckland, the march moved up Queen St to Aotea Square, with thousands of people filling the breadth of the street waving signs saying ‘‘Why do we still have to protest?’’ and ‘‘Using fossil fuels leads to fossils’’.

‘‘We’re definitely not done,’’ said School Strike 4 Climate NZ spokesman Jack Barlow.

In Christchurch, students demanded more investment in public transport, including making it free; more investment into climate education; and an immediate halt to the council-owned Tarras Airport project.

In Dunedin, the O¯ tepoti School Strike 4 Climate group had three additional demands with a local focus, including a halt to burning fossil fuels as a way to heat schools.