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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National

Thousands of UK pupils set to walk out of lessons in protest over climate change

Striking pupils march in front of the Reichstag building in Germany for more effective climate change policy (Picture: Getty Images)

Thousands of pupils across the UK are set to walk out of lessons next week in protest over climate change.

Young people from more than 30 cities and towns including London, Glasgow, Oxford and Manchester are set to join the mass demonstration on Friday, the Guardian reported.

The movement started in August when 16-year-old schoolgirl Greta Thunberg held a solo protest outside Sweden's parliament.

Now tens of thousands of young people are taking to the streets all over the world to demonstrate.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg who went on school strike every Friday to urge politicians to act on climate change after Sweden's hottest summer ever (AFP/Getty Images)

The coordinated day of action in Britain known as Youth Strike 4 Climate, organised by the UK Student Climate Network, will see pupils down books for three hours from 11am.

Organisers of the London event have urged activists to gather in Parliament Square.

A Facebook event page reads: "The World’s Youth are waking up. Millions of young people are realising it’s now or never and are now taking direct action on the climate crisis and ecological catastrophe.

"Whether you are at school, college or uni, go on strike on the Friday 15th February. For some this falls on half term; join the protest anyway, with youth from across the world.

"Tell the Government you’re prepared to break the rules to make change happen."

Jake Woodier, of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, which is helping to coordinate the strikes, said Ms Thurnberg's actions had struck a chord with hundreds of thousand of young people in the UK.

“The images of what Greta did and then the huge strikes by schoolchildren in other countries have been widely shared by young people on social media and have really inspired people,” he told the newspaper.

In other major cities, pupils have been told to meet at prominent locations such as the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.

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