Pupils across Scotland strike for climate change action

Thousands of pupils from schools across Scotland went on strike yesterday as part of a global youth action protest over climate change.

Protesters gather to protest in George Square, Glasgow, Downing Street and at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Picture: TSPL

Around 60 planned protests, organised by Youth Strike 4 Climate Change, took place across the UK with large protests outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, George Square in Glasgow and cities including London, Cardiff and Manchester.

Protests were also held in European cities, including outside the Swiss parliament in Bern and the Bundestag in Berlin.

Mounted police were used near Westminster to move protesters off the roads near Downing Street as a number of pupils took to the city’s buses to demonstrate, scaled traffic lights and statues in Parliament Square, or sat down in front of double-deckers.

Some protesters were led off in handcuffs after being removed from the road by police.

Prime Minister Theresa May criticised the protests.

Her official spokesman said: “It is important to emphasise disruption increases teacher’s workloads and wastes lesson time that teachers have carefully prepared for.”

The protests have been inspired by Greta Thunberg, 16, a Swedish activist who held a solo protest outside the Swedish Parliament. This has led to around 70,000 schoolchildren taking action each week across 270 towns and cities worldwide.

Scottish Greens education spokesman Ross Greer, who joined the strike by youth climate campaigners in Glasgow yesterday afternoon, said: “These strikes represent a movement of young people who won’t settle for anything less than the transformation required to save this world from climate breakdown.

“Scotland’s curriculum calls on our young people to be responsible citizens. Those taking this action are shining examples of that. Rather than be punished, they should be commended for fighting for our collective future.”

Scottish Labour shadow cabinet secretary for environment and climate change Claudia Beamish said: “The school pupils and students joining the strikes over climate change are an inspiration. These strikes provide the perfect opportunity for the SNP government to back Scottish Labour’s ­commitment to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest.”

John Bynorth, policy and communications officer at the charity Environmental Protection Scotland, said the protests gave voice to Scots schoolchildren excluded from the climate change debate.

He said: “The students who made their voices heard will be in their mid to late-20s in 11 years – the time left for the world to get its act together on climate change by keeping global warming to a maximum of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels or face catastrophic environmental change, according to the UN IPCC report published last year.”