Student climate change protesters who brought the tram network to a standstill in the city centre have promised more direct action – and have set their sights on cars.
Last week a crowd of placard-waving youngsters filled St Peter’s Square, staging an impromptu sit-in on the Metrolink tracks as they called for immediate steps to tackle global warming.
The youngsters are part of a movement of youth climate change strikes spreading worldwide, inspired by the solo demonstrations of 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
The weekly protests have snowballed from a handful of cities to hundreds, driven by social media-savvy students and dramatic headlines about the impact of climate change.
Emma Greenwood, who was elected as Bury’s Youth MP last month, was one of the key organisers of the Manchester climate change strike.
Speaking at the Greater Manchester green summit in Salford Quays on Monday, she said that the tram chaos was spontaneous.
“That was completely spur of the moment, we actually did not plan that at all,” the 15-year-old explained. “I think everyone got quite passionate in the moment.
“We decided that that may not be the message that we want to be sending because it’s an environmentally friendly mode of transport.”
But she added that they were committed to direct action to keep the issue on the government’s agenda, but would look to block roads instead.
Emma said: “So we’ve decided we’re going to do something like a walking march next time because that obviously affects cars which are more of a pollutant than electric trams.
“And we’re going to keep doing it, but we need to keep up that social media interaction so that politicians see what we’re doing.
“When people have written letters and things like that it doesn’t make the change as quick as we need, the time for change is now – and we’re the first and last people who can.”
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Greater Manchester leaders have launched a five year environment plan for the region, which aims to kickstart green initiatives to help reach the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2038.
There are a range of ‘urgent’ actions proposed, which will be the responsibility of councils, business and residents.
“We can’t wait 20 years when we’re older, or when we can vote, we need to start doing things now and the government need to realise that,” Emma added.
Watch: Young people in St Peter's Square protesting against climate change
“When we have these unseasonably hot days, or when we have these floods like we had a few weeks ago, we’re thinking that decision I’ve made is having an actual physical consequence.”
She said people needed to start making ‘little changes’ in their lives, such as trying to go plastic free or switching to reusable options to help make an impact.
