With strikes planned in 60 locations across the country, thousands of students skipped school on Friday to call for drastic climate change action.
In what has become a global movement since the first rally in November 2018, students were joined by others in America and Europe. Here in Australia, students called for a ban on new fossil fuel projects, 100% renewables by 2030 and the cancellation of the Adani Carmichael coalmine.
Minister for Finance, Senator the Hon Matthias Cormann, stated that ‘it’s a free world and during their free time kids can pursue whatever agendas and issues they want to pursue… I call on all involved to ensure that kids, during the day, during school time attend school’.
Shadow Minister for Rural and Regional Australia, the Hon Joel Fitzgibbon MP, defended the student protest, saying that ‘as long as they are safe and their parents know where they are and they are marching or protesting in a respectful way, in a responsible way, I think that it is fine’.
Some parents of children in rural and regional Australia have expressed concern that ‘city kids’ are striking about climate change and projects like the Adani Carmichael coalmine, without understanding the economic importance of these types of projects on rural and regional communities.
The founder of the movement, 15-year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden, was this week nominated for the Nobel peace prize. Given the renewed vigour behind these protests, and emerging climate change action policies like the Green New Deal in the United States, it can be expected that emissions reduction will remain an important issue for the upcoming Federal Election.
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