(ABC) Vanuatu Asks International Court Of Justice To Weigh In On Right To Be Protected From Climate Change

ABC News - Reuters

A number of Pacific islands are facing sea level rises and severe weather events that threaten their economies. (Reuters: Edgar Su/File photo)

Key Points Advisory opinions by the ICJ are not legally binding but can inform the development of international laws In May this year, a group of Australian teenagers received a favourable ruling in a similar case Pacific island nations are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels

Vanuatu is asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue an opinion on present and future generations' right to be protected from climate change.

Vanuatu, with a population of some 280,000 people spread across roughly 80 islands, is among more than a dozen Pacific island nations facing rising sea levels and more regular storms that can wipe out much of their economies.

"In response to the catastrophic levels of climate change loss and damage faced by this small Pacific nation, Vanuatu recognises that current levels of action and support for vulnerable developing countries within multilateral mechanisms are insufficient," the government said in a statement on Saturday.

Vanuatu said it would route the initiative through the United Nations General Assembly.

An abandoned house reclaimed by rising sea levels in the central Pacific island nation of Kiribati. (Reuters: David Gray/File photo)

While advisory opinions by the court are not legally binding, they carry legal weight and moral authority given its status as the highest UN court for disputes between states.

Its opinions can inform the development of international law.

Ahead of November's COP26 UN climate talks in Scotland, Vanuatu will "drastically expand its diplomacy and advocacy" to build a coalition with fellow Pacific islands and other vulnerable nations, it said.

An Australian court got there first

In May this year, a group of Australian teenagers received a favourable ruling in a similar case, in which they tried to stop approval for extending a coal mine in New South Wales.

The application for their injunction was ultimately dismissed, but the Judge ruled that Environment Minister Sussan Ley did have a duty to young people not to exacerbate climate change.

Experts said the ruling set a global precedent and lawyers involved in the case said it was a global first.

Caleb Pollard, president of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, said global responses so far were "mostly bandaid solutions that are in reality just buying more time and failing to provide actual meaningful change".

Links

• (Al Jazeera) Vanuatu To Push International Court For Climate Change Action
• Pushing back against the tide: Vanuatu's climate fight
• Helping to understand climate change in Vanuatu
• Vanuatu - Australia’s commitment to strengthening climate and disaster resilience in the Pacific
• Why are hundreds of Pacific Islands growing despite rising sea levels?
• Joe Biden vows to dramatically cut emissions to help Pacific Islands in climate change crisis
• Australia urged to create new Pacific visa due to climate change displacement

(Al Jazeera) Vanuatu To Push International Court For Climate Change Action

Al Jazeera - News Agencies

Island state with 280,000 people among more than a dozen Pacific island nations facing rising sea levels and more frequent storms.

In April, Tropical Cyclone Harold hit Vanuatu and demolished tourist resorts in another South Pacific island nation of Tonga [File: Courtesy of Dr Christopher Bartlett via Al Jazeera]

Vanuatu is asking the International Court of Justice to issue an opinion on the rights of present and future generations to be protected from the adverse effects of climate change.

Vanuatu, with a population of some 280,000 people spread across roughly 80 islands, is among more than a dozen Pacific island nations facing rising sea levels and more regular storms.

“In response to the catastrophic levels of climate change loss and damage faced by this small Pacific nation, Vanuatu recognises that current levels of action and support for vulnerable developing countries within multilateral mechanisms are insufficient,” the government said in a statement on Saturday.

Vanuatu said it will route the initiative through the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

While advisory opinions by the court are not legally binding, they carry legal weight and moral authority given its status as the highest UN court for disputes between states. Its opinions can inform the development of international law.



Before November’s COP26 UN climate talks in Scotland, Vanuatu will “drastically expand its diplomacy and advocacy” to build a coalition with fellow Pacific islands and other vulnerable nations, it said.

Caleb Pollard, president of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, said global responses so far were “mostly band-aid solutions that are in reality just buying more time and failing to provide actual meaningful change”.

“We must address the crisis by systematically targeting the root causes of one of the biggest and most imminent threats we face today,” Pollard said in a statement.

In April, Tropical Cyclone Harold hit Vanuatu and demolished tourist resorts in another South Pacific island nation of Tonga, extending a weeklong trail of destruction across four island nations with more than two dozen people killed.

In 2015, about 64 percent of the island nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) was wiped out in a single cyclone, causing economic losses of nearly $450m.

In 2019, Vanuatu considered legal action against big polluters thousands of kilometres away amid the effects of rising sea temperatures, intense cyclones, and erratic weather patterns.

Vanuatu and other South Pacific nations are being forced to spend more money, not only on protecting themselves, but also on keeping their businesses afloat because of climate change.



Links

• (ABC) Vanuatu Asks International Court Of Justice To Weigh In On Right To Be Protected From Climate Change
• Pushing back against the tide: Vanuatu's climate fight
• Helping to understand climate change in Vanuatu
• Vanuatu - Australia’s commitment to strengthening climate and disaster resilience in the Pacific
• Why are hundreds of Pacific Islands growing despite rising sea levels?
• Joe Biden vows to dramatically cut emissions to help Pacific Islands in climate change crisis
• Australia urged to create new Pacific visa due to climate change displacement
• How can people displaced by climate change get justice?
• Vanuatu considers suing major polluters over climate change
• Tropical Cyclone Harold heads for Vanuatu
• UN releases $2.5m to help cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu

Cop26: Women Must Be Heard On Climate, Say Rights Groups

The Guardian - Fiona Harvey

Those worst hit by global heating are left out of talks, says feminist coalition calling for systemic change

The words of the suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett adapted into an environmental call to action at Parliament Square in London. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

Women must be enabled to play a greater role at the Cop26 summit, as the needs of women and girls are being overlooked amid the global climate crisis, a coalition of feminist groups has said.

The Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice has laid out a call for action at the UN general assembly, including demands that world leaders meeting at Cop26, in Glasgow this November, must end fossil fuel expansion and move to 100% renewable energy.

More than 120 groups have signed the call, to be presented at a six-day online forum starting on Saturday, which also includes demands to promote women’s leadership and equity, protect the rights of indigenous peoples, improve food security, recognise a human right to water, and to protect forests, oceans and other ecosystems.

Osprey Orielle Lake, of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, and convener of the assembly, said: “Every day, we can see for ourselves forest fires burning, massive flooding, extreme droughts, people losing their livelihoods and lives– – we are in a global climate emergency.

“As the world prepares for one of the most important climate talks since the Paris agreement, we know solutions exist, and that women are leading the way.”

She said Cop26 must deliver a pathway to limiting global heating to 1.5C, and help people around the world – particularly women and children, who are often the worst affected – build resilience to the impacts of the climate crisis.

“We need systemic change,” she added. “It’s not going to work if we just barrel through another Cop and nothing happens.”

As women are responsible in many countries for gathering fuel, water and food, they often suffer the most when shortages are caused or made worse by the climate crisis. As they are usually lacking land rights, they are also more likely to be displaced in climate disasters. Studies have also found the climate crisis exacerbates gender-based violence against women.

From left to right: Osprey Orielle Lake, Casey Camp Horinek (Ponca nation leader, Indigenous Environmental Network representative) and Neema Namadamu at Cop21 negotiations in Paris, France. Photograph: Emily Arasim/Courtesy of Wecan

Neema Namadamu, founder of the Synergy of Congolese Women’s Associations, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said: “I was born in the forest, my whole being is from the forest. Women are on the frontline, working for climate justice and affected by climate change.

"We are planting trees – without trees there is no life. We cook with fires and have fires for light at night. We really need to start working together.”

Many of the remedies to the climate crisis would also benefit women. For instance, replacing cooking fires with solar stoves would reduce indoor air pollution that affects women and children more as they spend more time at home.

Bringing clean renewable energy to low-income countries would enable more women and girls to gain access to education, as without electricity they often lack the means to study after nightfall.

Mary Robinson, former UN high commissioner for human rights, former president of Ireland and chair of the Elders group of world leaders, has long been a critic of the lack of women’s representation at Cops, the “conference of the parties”.

She said: “We need to centre women and girls in the climate context – women need to be included at the table. The UK promised the most inclusive Cop, but it is not. The Covid crisis has exacerbated and cemented gender inequality, and we need to build on the gender action plan [agreed at the last Cop, in Madrid, in 2019].”

The Guardian revealed last year that the UK as host country was fielding an all-male top team for Glasgow, headed by the cabinet minister and Cop president Alok Sharma, with 10 ministers, civil servants and other officials who were all male.

 The government came under heavy criticism after the revelation, and appointed Anne-Marie Trevelyan, now trade secretary, as a “champion” to focus on climate adaptation and resilience. About 45% of the Cop26 unit are now women, but almost all of the most senior public-facing roles are taken by men.

A workshop on gender and the climate crisis at the Bonn climate change conference in 2019. Photograph: Kiara Worth/IISD/ENB

During the two-week Cop26 summit, there will be a day devoted to gender issues, which will include a discussion of the gender action plan. A Cop26 spokesperson said: “Women and girls have a critical role to play in the fight against the climate crisis – as decision-makers, educators and advocates at all levels.

"Progress is being made, with women among some of the most influential figures in international climate diplomacy today, but there is more to be done.

“The UK is committed to championing diversity and inclusivity throughout our Cop26 presidency and advancing gender equality in climate action and finance.”

‘Use your £11bn climate fund to pay for family planning,’ UK told.  Read more

Dipti Bhatnagar, of Friends of the Earth International, said there were concerns that women from low-income countries would face obstacles coming to Glasgow, as arrivals from red list countries must quarantine in the UK.

The UK government is running a pre-Cop vaccination programme for delegates and has pledged to fund the required quarantine stays for registered attenders, including party delegates, observers and media from the global south who would otherwise find it difficult to attend the conference.

However, Bhatnagar said: “Cop26 going ahead in person is very unsafe and inequitable now. Many organisations have demanded the UK government postpone.”

Links

• Women’s Earth And Climate Action Network: Climate Justice Now
• Climate breakdown 'is increasing violence against women'
• COP21 is too male dominated and has male priorities, says UN special envoy
• Why women are key to solving the climate crisis
• Mapped: How climate change disproportionately affects women’s health
• Five ways climate change hurts women and girls
• The Climate Crisis Is Worse for Women. Here’s Why.
• Lethal Heating: Women and Climate Change Posts

(CA National Observer) Meet The Young Climate Leaders Helping To Set The COP26 Agenda

National Observer - Cloe Logan

Vancouver-based youth climate activist Shakti Ramkumar is heading to Milan for the Youth4Climate summit ahead of COP26. Photo submitted by Shakti Ramkumar

In less than a week’s time, Shakti Ramkumar will be in Milan, Italy, with hundreds of other young climate leaders.

The Vancouver-based youth climate activist is set to attend the Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition meeting, which takes place Sept. 28 to 30 in advance of COP26.

Participants will form working groups and discuss proposals on climate initiatives, including ways to create jobs in renewable energy, push countries to prioritize low-carbon action, and urge the fashion industry to reduce its climate footprint. Conference results will be shared with participants and decision-makers attending COP26, and inform the negotiation process at the conference.

It’s not Ramkumar’s first climate conference (she attended COP25 in Madrid, Spain), but this meeting feels especially important. She said she has heard concerns from other attendees (she’s in a WhatsApp group with over 300 of them) about not being able to make it to the event.

Equity at COP26 has been centre stage — many worry the lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines and the expense of quarantine and travel for delegates from many countries mean the Glasgow-based event won’t be as fair or effective as it should be.

“I feel like before COVID, I would have been just like 100 per cent excited... This year, I feel 70 per cent excited, still very excited, but I also feel a bigger sense of responsibility this year than any other year, just recognizing how inequitable travelling is right now,” she said.

“And these conference spaces have always been a privileged basin because so few people can attend compared to the number of people who are advocating on the ground for these issues.”

With COP26 being called our “last hope” for meeting the world’s Paris Agreement goal, the role of youth is more important than ever. Canada’s National Observer caught up with some of the attendees and asked them for their thoughts on Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition and the larger picture of COP26.

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Photo submitted by Shakti Ramkumar

Shakti Ramkumar, 25, Vancouver
Director of communications and policy at Student Energy

The UN climate conference in November is being called our “last hope” to meet our Paris Agreement targets, and the role of youth is more important than ever. Here's what attendees at the upcoming #Youth4Climate are hoping to see at #COP26.

It’s the first time a youth summit is taking place before a UN climate conference, which is important, said Ramkumar.

“(In previous years), before anyone even arrived within that space, before the youth delegations even set foot in COP, a lot of the big decisions and the parameters for the discussion (had) already been set,” she explained.

It makes this timeline exciting, she said, and leaves her hopeful that youth perspectives will be worked into the COP26 agenda — something she and other delegates believe was lacking in the past.

Coming off the heels of a federal election makes Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition all the more timely for Ramkumar, who is concerned Canada might show up at COP26 without a clear plan to meet its Paris targets. Those feelings are coupled with questions around the government needing to support youth-led climate action and provide financial support for youth in the clean energy sector.

“In the Canadian youth groups I'm tapped into, there's frustration that front-line Indigenous climate activists have not been sufficiently heard by any party during this election, and that there's still not a clear pathway to actually meeting our targets,” she said.

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Photo submitted by Louise Mabulo

Louise Mabulo, 23, Philippines
Founder of The Cacao Project
UN Young Champion of the Earth

Louise Mabulo has seen and felt the climate crisis first-hand. Intensifying storms have affected her region in the Philippines, where the country sees an average of 20 typhoons each year.

For the chef, farmer, and entrepreneur, her lived experience ties into her climate advocacy. She started The Cacao Project, which connects farmers in her home city of San Fernando with resilient, long-term, and profitable crops, such as cacao seedlings, after typhoon Nock-ten destroyed over 80 per cent of permeable land in the area in 2016.

“... I can share my own experiences as someone who has witnessed the depth and devastation of the climate crisis first-hand in my region through the intensifying typhoons which my country experiences,” she said.

When thinking about the future of youth and climate conferences, Mabulo hopes there is an opportunity to expand ongoing dialogues, discussions, and working groups with youth year-round through the UN.

“... It is only natural that there is too much ground to cover on a topic as expansive as climate in a yearly event,” she said.

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Photo submitted by Jhannel Tomlinson

Jhannel Tomlinson, 29, Jamaica
Co-founder of GirlsCARE

The event will serve as a place where young people can share their experiences, as well as climate goals they’d like to see reached, explained Jhannel Tomlinson, who served as the Jamaican youth delegate both for COP24 in Poland and COP25 in Madrid.

The 29-year-old is a PhD candidate in the department of geography and geology at the University of the West Indies whose work has focused on climate change adaptation in rural Jamaican communities. She sees the event as a vital way to bridge the gap between children and decision-makers.

“The young people of tomorrow will inherit a world that they didn’t create,” she said.

“Being the generation closest to them, it is important for us as youth to be able to advocate for the protection of the Earth, the conservation of resources, environmental justice for the vulnerable, and for economies that are less premised on extractive industries.”

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Photo submitted by Nisreen Elsaim

Nisreen Elsaim, 26, Sudan
Chair of the UN Secretary General's Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change
Chair of the Sudan Youth Organization on Climate Change

When Nisreen Elsaim talks about what she wants to see come from the Youth4Climate meeting, as well as COP26, she says “intergenerational justice” is key.

“We are talking about climate impacts that will actually affect people, young people specifically, 20 years later, 15 years later, 10 years later,” she said.

“Even now, a lot of young people around the world are impacted by climate change.”

Elsaim hopes concrete plans to cut back on emissions and support communities dealing with climate change come out of the youth-focused event. She also wants to see a shift in the climate change movement towards taking young people seriously.

“They should not also be treated as a decoration ... we have our knowledge, we (are) professional, we should get invited to different events,” she said.

“(It should be) according to that, to what we can actually add to the event, not just to make it more diverse or just say that they have youth representation.”

Links

• (Reuters) World's Youth Take To The Streets Again To Battle Climate Change
• (The Guardian) Young Global Climate Strikers Vow Change Is Coming – From The Streets
• A Year Of Resistance: How Youth Protests Shaped The Discussion On Climate Change
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action
• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector
• School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
• Hundreds of thousands of students join global climate strikes
• (AU ABC) School Strike 4 Climate: Thousands Of Young Australians Call For Urgent Action On Climate Change
• Greta Thunberg Effect: People Familiar With Young Climate Activist May Be More Likely To Act
• ‘Hypocrites And Greenwash’: Greta Thunberg Blasts Leaders Over Climate Crisis
• Another Two Years Lost To Climate Inaction, Says Greta Thunberg

(Reuters) World's Youth Take To The Streets Again To Battle Climate Change

Reuters - Kate Abnett

Summary Largest global climate protest since pandemic Strike takes place weeks before COP26 summit Hundreds of thousands protest in Germany alone, organisers say 'No political party is doing close to enough', Thunberg says

BRUSSELS - Young people around the world took to the streets on Friday to demand urgent action to avert disastrous climate change, in their largest protest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The strike takes place five weeks before the U.N. COP26 summit, which aims to secure more ambitious climate action from world leaders to drastically cut the greenhouse gas emissions heating the planet.

"The concentration of CO2 in the sky hasn't been this high for at least 3 million years," Swedish activist Greta Thunberg told a crowd of thousands of protesters in the German capital.

"It is clearer than ever that no political party is doing close to enough."

Demonstrations were planned in more than 1,500 locations by youth movement Fridays for Future, kicking off in Asia with small-scale demonstrations in the Philippines and Bangladesh, and spreading throughout the day to European cities including Warsaw, Turin and Berlin.

"Everyone is talking about making promises, but nobody keeps their promise. We want more action," said Farzana Faruk Jhumu, 22, a youth climate activist in Dhaka, Bangladesh. "We want the work, not just the promises."

A landmark U.N. climate science report in August warned that human activity has already locked in climate disruptions for decades - but that rapid, large-scale action to reduce emissions could still stave off some of the most destructive impacts. read more

So far, governments do not plan to cut emissions anywhere near fast enough to do that.

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg attends the Global Climate Strike of the movement Fridays for Future in Berlin, Germany, September 24, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Mang
More images: 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

The United Nations said last week that countries' commitments would see global emissions increase to be 16% higher in 2030 than they were in 2010 - far off the 45% reduction by 2030 needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"We are here because we are saying a loud 'no' to what is happening in Poland," said Dominika Lasota, 19, a youth activist at a protest in Warsaw, Poland. "Our government has for years been blocking any sort of climate politics and ignores our demands for a safe future."

Friday's strike marked the in-person return of the youth climate protests that in 2019 drew more than six million people onto the streets, before the COVID-19 pandemic largely halted the mass gatherings and pushed much of the action online.

Yusuf Baluch, 17, a youth activist in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, said the return to in-person events was vital to force leaders to tackle the planetary crisis.

"Last time it was digital and nobody was paying attention to us," he said.

But with access to COVID-19 vaccines still highly uneven around the world, activists in some poorer countries said they would only hold symbolic actions with only a handful of people.

"In the global north, people are getting vaccinated so they might be out in huge quantities. But in the global south, we are still limited," Baluch said.>

The world's youth take to the streets in #FridaysForFuture protests to demand urgent action to avert climate change, in their largest protest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. More photos: https://t.co/xBTVe4Yz9D pic.twitter.com/QVVPWvqXrf

— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) September 24, 2021

Links

• (The Guardian) Young Global Climate Strikers Vow Change Is Coming – From The Streets
• (CA National Observer) Meet The Young Climate Leaders Helping To Set The COP26 Agenda
• A Year Of Resistance: How Youth Protests Shaped The Discussion On Climate Change
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action
• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector
• School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
• Hundreds of thousands of students join global climate strikes
• (AU ABC) School Strike 4 Climate: Thousands Of Young Australians Call For Urgent Action On Climate Change
• Greta Thunberg Effect: People Familiar With Young Climate Activist May Be More Likely To Act
• ‘Hypocrites And Greenwash’: Greta Thunberg Blasts Leaders Over Climate Crisis
• Another Two Years Lost To Climate Inaction, Says Greta Thunberg
• U.N. climate change report sounds 'code red for humanity'

Fridays For Future Global Climate Strike – In Pictures

The Guardian

Activists marched on cities around the world to demand action on climate change before Cop26 in Glasgow

Greta Thunberg, centre, and the German climate activist Luisa Neubauer (centre left) attend the march in Berlin. Photograph: Filip Singer/EPA

Fridays for Future movement at Kadikoy district of Istanbul. Photograph: Ozan Köse/AFP/Getty Images

Young activists make their feelings known in London. Photograph: David Cliff/AP

Czech protestors take to the streets of Prague. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

A young woman holds up a poster while taking part in the climate strike in Lisbon, Portugal. Photograph: Armando Franca/AP

The Red Rebels performance group join hundreds of people taking part in a global climate protest in Cape Town, South Africa. Photograph: Rodger Bosch/AFP/Getty

Polish students demonstrate in Warsaw. Photograph: Kacper Pempel/Reuters

The demonstration in Glasgow was echoed in Stirling, Ullapool and a rally outside the Scottish parliament. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

People take part in the Fridays for Future protest in Berlin, Germany. Photograph: Christian Mang/Reuters

The message from Glasgow, Scotland. Photograph: Ewan Bootman/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

Banners in Warsaw, Poland. Photograph: Radek Pietruszka/EPA

Students in Rome play out a protest. Photograph: Antonio Masiello/Getty

Activists march through Westminster, London, to demand politicians act on climate change promises. Photograph: David Cliff/AP

An environmental activist puts a banner on a police barricade during the Fridays for Future strike in New Delhi, India. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Students call for action against climate change in Rome, Italy. Photograph: Antonio Masiello/Getty

People sit on a bench next to a banner in Bristol, UK. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Indian activists take part in the climate strike in Kolkata, India. Photograph: Piyal Adhikary/EPA

Protesters in Naples, Italy. Photograph: Cesare Abbate/EPA

A balloon resembling the CDU party chairman, Armin Laschet, flies in front of the chancellery in Berlin. Photograph: Clemens Bilan/EPA

Austrian students take to the streets in Vienna. Photograph: Leonhard Föger/Reuters

Greta Thunberg speaks in front of the Reichstag in Berlin. Photograph: Maja Hitij/Getty

Links

• (Reuters) World's Youth Take To The Streets Again To Battle Climate Change
• (The Guardian) Young Global Climate Strikers Vow Change Is Coming – From The Streets
• (CA National Observer) Meet The Young Climate Leaders Helping To Set The COP26 Agenda
• A Year Of Resistance: How Youth Protests Shaped The Discussion On Climate Change
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action
• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector
• School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
• Hundreds of thousands of students join global climate strikes
• (AU ABC) School Strike 4 Climate: Thousands Of Young Australians Call For Urgent Action On Climate Change
• Greta Thunberg Effect: People Familiar With Young Climate Activist May Be More Likely To Act
• ‘Hypocrites And Greenwash’: Greta Thunberg Blasts Leaders Over Climate Crisis
• Another Two Years Lost To Climate Inaction, Says Greta Thunberg

(The Guardian) Young Global Climate Strikers Vow Change Is Coming – From The Streets

The Guardian - Damian Carrington

Mass youth protests to hit more than 1,400 locations weeks before Cop26 climate summit

People attend a global climate rally in Mexico City in 2019. This year’s protests will be the first since the Covid crisis. Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

A global climate strike by youth protesters on Friday hit more than 1,400 locations with a message that “change is coming – from the streets”.

The strike is the first such worldwide action since the coronavirus pandemic hit, and is taking place just weeks before the vital Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, UK.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said on Tuesday the world was “seemingly light years away from reaching our targets”.

The youth strikes, along with the increasingly severe impacts of extreme weather, have been credited with raising the profile of the climate emergency.

In Germany, two days before the general election, mass protests are planned in 420 towns and cities, and Greta Thunberg will address protesters in front of the Bundestag in Berlin.

“It has been a strange year and a half with the pandemic, but the climate crisis is even more urgent than it was before,” said Thunberg, whose solo strike in 2018 inspired the global Fridays for Future movement. “We will go back on the streets now to show that we have not disappeared and that we are demanding climate action and climate justice.”

Luisa Neubauer, from Fridays For Future in Germany, said: “Change is going to come but it is going to come from the streets. We will make sure that this message is out there on the 24th.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said the world’s carbon emissions must fall by half by 2030 to keep global heating below 1.5C, the limit countries agreed to strive for in 2015 in Paris.

But the UN reported on 17 September that current pledges from countries would lead to a 16% rise in the next decade.

There have been some positive moves in recent days, with China saying it will end its financing for highly polluting coal-fired power stations abroad – though not at home – and the US doubling its climate finance to vulnerable nations. This funding helps rich countries move towards delivery of the $100bn a year promised a decade ago, which is seen as critical for the success of COP26.

But Vanessa Nakate, a youth striker from the Rise Up Movement in Uganda, said: “The $100bn is the first step to correcting climate injustice. It was like countries finally looked up and saw the suffering and devastation that was going on in countries like mine because of the climate crisis. The most disturbing thing about this, though, is that it has not been delivered.”

Protesters in Mexico will assemble in front of the National Palace in Mexico City to demand that the state oil company Pemex presents a plan to decarbonise, while in Bangladesh activists will demand the scrapping of planned new coal and gas power stations.

Demonstrations will also take place in 12 cities in South Africa, 64 towns and cities in Canada, at least 12 cities in Argentina, and in many other places.

“The global north should be developing climate policies that have at their core climate justice and accountability to the most affected people and areas,” said Valentina Ruas, from Brazil. “Instead, they continue to exploit vulnerable communities and recklessly extract fossil fuel, while bragging about their insignificant emission reduction plans.”

The UK is the host of Cop26 and, in Parliament Square in London on Friday youth protesters will be joined by trade unions and environmental groups.

Elijah Mckenzie-Jackson said: “We know that another world is possible. Our government has the solutions and it has the money yet it is actively choosing not to act on climate but to prioritise the will of fossil fuel lobbyists.”

Parent climate activists are also supporting the youth strikers. Ana Ancines, from Parents For Future Colombia, said: “All parents need to unite to guarantee the young generation’s future. In Latin America, we have to defend the Amazon, our natural reserves and water. I’m concerned about my kids and your kids’ future and this is why we are joining young climate activists.”

Links

• A Year Of Resistance: How Youth Protests Shaped The Discussion On Climate Change
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action
• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector
• School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
• Hundreds of thousands of students join global climate strikes
• (AU ABC) School Strike 4 Climate: Thousands Of Young Australians Call For Urgent Action On Climate Change
• Greta Thunberg Effect: People Familiar With Young Climate Activist May Be More Likely To Act
• ‘Hypocrites And Greenwash’: Greta Thunberg Blasts Leaders Over Climate Crisis
• Another Two Years Lost To Climate Inaction, Says Greta Thunberg