16/03/2019

Climate Change Strikes Across Australia See Student Protesters Defy Calls To Stay In School

ABC News


Students strike for climate change (ABC News)

Key points:
  • Students have used a combination of humour, passion and urgency in protests across the country
  • The protests were inspired by the actions of a 16-year-old Swedish student, Greta Thunberg, in Stockholm
  • PM Scott Morrison objected to a previous similar protest, saying he didn't want to see "schools being turned into parliaments"
Tens of thousands of young Australians have walked out of their classrooms today to stage protests in capital cities demanding action on climate change.
Rallies began in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart outside state parliament buildings and town halls.
Students have also marched at rallies across regional Australia, with large crowds protesting at Geelong, Byron Bay, Coffs Harbour, Cairns and Townsville.
Many used humour to get their point across, with posters referencing internet memes and suggesting fail grades for the nation's political efforts on climate change policy.
Others were more serious — one poster urged politicians to "panic" about addressing climate change and another warned "there is no Planet B".
Melbourne protest organisers said about 20,000 people attended the rally outside Parliament House. (ABC News: Stephanie Anderson)
In Melbourne, protesters filled Spring Street in the CBD, blocking traffic and trams and chanting "this is what democracy looks like" and "students united will never be divided".
Milou Albrecht and Harriet O'Shea Carre, both 14, travelled from Castlemaine in central Victoria to march in Melbourne.
Harriet O'Shea Carre and Milou Albrecht travelled with 400 of their fellow students to make the Melbourne march. (ABC News)
The pair started the rally last year and were joined by 400 others from Castlemaine Secondary School.
"Together our collective voice is very strong and powerful," Harriet said.
What do the students want?
  • Stop the Adani coal mine in central Queensland
  • No new coal or gas projects
  • 100 per cent renewables by 2030
Hobart College student Imogen Viner said she was concerned about the future of forests in Tasmania.
"Specifically for Tassie, we want to look at stopping how much forestry she's got going on," she said.
Frida Elliott, 15, said she did not care whether her school supported her presence at the Hobart rally.
"We're told we shouldn't be missing class time by our teachers … but there's nothing they can do about it and they've taken a step back and realised the power we have here," she said.
Rallies were also held in Darwin, Brisbane and Perth.
Hundreds of students defied school warnings to attend a rally at Peregian Beach on the Sunshine Coast. (ABC News: Megan Kinninment)
There were 50 rallies planned across the country for students to protest against what they see as the destruction of their future.
Meanwhile, New Zealand rallies have seen strong turnouts, with a student march blocking streets in Wellington this morning.
Thousands of protesters gathered in Perth's CBD to join the nationwide movement. (ABC News: Evan Morgan Grahame)
Students 'on the right side of history'
The protests were inspired by 16-year-old Swedish student Greta Thunberg, who pledged to protest outside the Parliament in Stockholm until the country caught up on its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Greta urged students to ignore calls from some politicians to stay in school.
Students in Byron Bay ditched school to join the global movement. (ABC News: Sam Turnbull)
"I say that the children are on the right side of history and that those politicians are not," she said.
"So they should keep on fighting and they must be prepared to go on for a very, very long time.
"I don't think decision-makers will get the message for a very long time."
In Melbourne, students staged their protest outside Parliament House. (ABC News: Bez Zewdie)
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said he would meet with the climate strikers to discuss their concerns outside of school hours, while Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the protests should have been held on a weekend.
"Students leaving school during school hours to protest is not something that we should encourage," Mr Tehan said.
"Especially when they are being encouraged to do so by green political activists."
Similar protests in November prompted Prime Minister Scott Morrison to warn against the idea of students leaving school to participate in protests.
"We don't support our schools being turned into parliaments. What we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools," Mr Morrison said at the time.
Students are calling for a switch to renewable energy. (ABC News: Gabriella Marchant)
But other politicians have thrown their support behind the rallies.
NSW Opposition Leader Michael Daley encouraged students to exercise their "democratic right" to protest.
Independent MP Julia Banks said she was proud to support students for "using their voice".
"This is their time," she said on Twitter.
Signs got creative in Hobart. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)
Greta received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts starting a global climate change movement.
Her view is shared by students around the globe, including the 15-year-old student organiser for the Sydney school strike, Jean Hinchcliffe.
"I believe that I have learnt much more from these strikes and the organising process than I have learnt in any lesson during school," she told the ABC.
"The amount of experience you gain from it and learning to mobilise and participate in democracy I think is far more worthwhile than any history lesson."
At the November protests, students filled arcades and city squares, defying calls by the Prime Minister to stay in school, to call for an end to political inertia on climate policy.
Students gathered on the steps of South Australia's Parliament House. (ABC News: Gabriella Marchant)

Ruby Clark, 12, was among thousands of protesters gathered at Garema Place in Canberra. (ABC News: Niki Burnside)

Thousands of students gathered in Hobart. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)
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Teenage Climate Activist Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize

Fairfax - AP | Peter Hannam

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, started a global campaign for student action that will culminate in an international day of strike action by students on March 15. Credit: DPA
 
Three Norwegian lawmakers have nominated Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, who has become a prominent voice in campaigns against climate change, for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Freddy Andre Oevstegaard and two other members of the Socialist Left Party said they believe "the massive movement Greta has set in motion is a very important peace contribution".


Thousands of children walk out of their classrooms for a global climate strike amid growing anger at the failure of politicians to tackle the escalating crisis.

Oevstegaard told the VG newspaper Wednesday that "climate threats are perhaps one of the most important contributions to war and conflict".
Thunberg, 16, has encouraged students to skip school to join protests demanding faster action on climate change, a movement that spread far beyond Sweden.
On Friday, about 40,000 students in Australia are expected to strike in as many as 55 separate protests as part of the School Strike 4 Climate campaign. That number is about twice that of a similar action in November, with over 100 nations likely to take part this time around.
Thunberg has been staging a Friday strike since last year, boycotting 42 days of classes since she began last year.
"The plan was to school strike for three weeks [in the run up to Swedish elections]," she said. "But at the end of that I wanted to go on. So then I started Fridays For Future ... The emissions are still going up so nothing has been achieved really."

Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg leading a march of thousands of French students through Paris in February. Credit: AP
 
When not standing vigil in public protests, the 16-year-old has travelled widely - always avoiding flights to save on greenhouse gas emissions - and addressed a UN conference on climate in Poland, the World Economic Forum in Davos and the European Union in Brussels, among other events.
"But my grades are still good and I have not missed out on what I need to achieve in school," she said.

IMAGE

Any national lawmaker can nominate somebody for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee doesn't publicly comment on nominations, which for 2019 had to be submitted by February 1.
Friday's strike will be held from midday at the Sydney Town Hall, the Old Treasury in Melbourne and Garema Place in Canberra. In Brisbane it will be held from 1pm at Queen's Gardens and in Perth from 11am at St George's Cathedral, with dozens of other protests to be held in regional parts of Australia.

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Environmental Groups Take France To Court Over Climate Change Inaction

Reuters - Bate Felix | Marine Pennetier | Danielle Rouquié | Jean-Baptiste Vey

PARIS - Environmental groups including Greenpeace and Oxfam have filed an unprecedented court action against the French government, accusing it of insufficient policy actions to tackle climate change.
French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA) in Gigiri, within Nairobi, Kenya March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
The groups aim to persuade the Paris Administrative court to force the government to apply its own policies, such as the multi-year energy plan, known as the PPE, and international agreements such as the 2015 Paris Climate accord.
“The state is not living up to commitments it has made itself, especially in the context of the Paris agreement of 2015,” said Cecile Duflot, a former minister and current Executive Director of Oxfam France.
“The state is a litigant like any other, our goal is for it to be condemned to act,” she told France Inter radio.
The court action is backed by an online petition signed by more than 2 million people and is supported by other NGOs including the Nicolas Hulot Foundation, created by a former minister and renowned environmentalist who resigned from President Emmanuel Macron’s government last summer over slow progress on climate change goals.
A Greenpeace statement said that France was on the wrong track in terms of curbing its emissions of greenhouse gases, which have been on the rise since 2015.
“This wait-and-see attitude has only worsened the situation in the agriculture, transport, energy and biodiversity protection sectors, with France falling behind and now requiring a restart and strong and urgent measures,” it said, adding that the government was refusing to put urgent measures in place to reach its objectives.
French Environment Minister Francois de Rugy, denied that the government was dragging its feet, adding on BFM Television that the court action would not lead to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Speaking in Kenyan capital Nairobi on the sidelines of the One Planet Summit he launched in 2017 to speed efforts to tackle climate change, President Macron said he does not believe the court action would lead anywhere.
“The solution is in all of us. On this issue, it is not the People vs. The Government. This nonsense should stop,” Macron said on LCI Television.
“We all must act. Governments must act. Major enterprises must act. Investors must act. Citizens must act. All together.”
A draft energy and climate law that was due to be presented to the cabinet this week has been postponed so that it can be reworked with more ambitious environmental goals.

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