Protesters fear climate change impact, demand aid for poor
Youth activists staged a coordinated global climate strike on Friday to highlight their fears about the effects of global warming and demand more aid for poor countries hit by wild weather.
Protesters took to the streets in Jakarta, Tokyo, Rome, and Berlin carrying banners and posters with slogans such as We are worried about the climate crisis and Its not too late.
The demonstrations were organised by the Fridays for Future youth movement that took its cue from activist Greta Thunberg, who began protesting alone outside the Swedish parliament in 2018.
Were striking all over the world because the governments in charge are still doing too little for climate justice,” said Darya Sotoodeh, a spokesperson for the groups chapter in Germany.
People all over the world are suffering from this crisis and its going to get worse if we dont act on time,” she said.
Thousands of people attended the rally in Berlin, which featured calls for the German government to establish a 100-billion-euro fund for tackling climate change.
In Rome, some 5,000 young people turned out for a march that ended near the Colosseum.
One placard read: The climate is changing. Why arent we? Students highlighted among their priorities the need to rethink Italys transport policies. The countrys ratio of cars per inhabitant is one of the highest in Europe.
In Italys election campaign, which wraps up on Friday evening ahead of the September 25 vote for Parliament, climate change policies didnt figure heavily at candidates rallies.
The protests follow warnings from scientists that countries arent doing enough to meet the 2015 Paris climate accords top-line target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) this century compared to preindustrial times.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders this week that the fossil fuel industry, which is responsible for a large share of planet-warming gases, is feasting on hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits while household budgets shrink and our planet burns.” Guterres urged rich countries to tax the profits of energy companies and redirect the funds to both countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis and those struggling with the rising cost of living.
Demands for poor nations to receive greater financial help to cope with global warming, including the destruction already wrought by deadly weather events such as the floods in Pakistan, have grown louder in the run-up to this years UN climate summit.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
