West students join global climate change strikes

STUDENTS from across the West joined school strikes around the world yesterday demanding that politicians take urgent action on climate change.

Young people took to the streets in places including New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Nepal, India and European cities as part of 2,000 events in more than 120 countries.

In the UK, walkouts took place in more than 100 towns and cities, driven by what students say is “an alarming lack of government leadership on climate action”.

The global day of action has been inspired by teenager Greta Thunberg, who protests every Friday outside Sweden’s parliament to urge leaders to tackle climate change.

A poll ahead of the walkouts suggested a majority of the British public support UK students who first ditched lessons and lectures for demonstrations on February 15 to call for greater climate action.

There is also significant public support for cutting the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions to zero as soon as possible, with 70 per cent saying it is important the Government takes action to do so, the survey by Opinium suggests.

Students in the UK are demanding the Government declares a climate emergency and takes active steps to tackle the problem, communicates the severity of the ecological crisis to the public and reforms the curriculum to make it an educational priority.

Picture: Dan Regan Students’ climate change demonstration on College Green, Bristol