With world leaders about to gather in New York for a UN Climate Action Summit next week, millions of young people from Australia to Iceland will take off from school or work on Friday to demand urgent measures to stop environmental catastrophe.
Also read: How Greta Thunberg’s climate strikes became a global movement in a year
Protests, inspired by the 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, are planned in some 150 countries. The aim is for students and others from around the world to speak in one voice about the impending effects of climate change on the planet.
Here are the updates:
Global climate protests begin in Australia before UN summit
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered at rallies around Australia as a day of worldwide demonstrations calling for action to guard against climate change began ahead a UN summit in New York.
Some of the first rallies in what is being billed as a “global climate strike” kicked off in Australia’s largest city, Sydney, and the national capital, Canberra. Australian demonstrators called for their nation, which is the world’s largest exporter of coal and liquid natural gas, to take more drastic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Global Strike 4 Climate said protests were staged in 110 towns and cities across Australia on Friday, with organizers demanding government and business commit to a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
- AP
How to get involved
'Fridays for Future', student activist Greta Thunberg’s school strike movement, has collated a list of protests across the world in a map where each pin represents a protest for the cause. Click on the dropdown menu to select your country and hover over the pin for details.
Climate-change protesters poised to kick off global wave of street marches
More than 1,000 strikes are planned across the United States and some 5,200 globally in about 156 countries, said Alexandria Villaseũor, co-founder of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike movement, and May Boeve, head of climate campaign group 350.org.
The protests will mark the first time adults are joining student strikes on a significant scale, likely giving them added numbers, publicity and impact, organizers said.
“Expect tomorrow to be the largest global mobilisation in climate action that has ever been seen in history,” Villaseũor said.
- Reuters
Amazon vows to be carbon neutral by 2040
Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos on Thursday committed the company to being carbon neutral by 2040 and said part of that pledge is an order for 1,00,000 electric delivery vans from a start-up the online retailer has invested in.
Cutting emissions is a challenging goal for Amazon, which delivers 10 billion items a year and has a massive transportation footprint. “We know we can do it and we know we have to do it,” Mr. Bezos said.
Mr. Bezos announced a number of actions at a press conference in Washington ahead of Climate Week in New York next week, a global gathering of world and company leaders seeking ways to fight climate change.
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