Activist Greta Thunberg kicks off Youth Climate Summit
September 21, 2019
The climate summit came just a day after millions of people took to the streets across the world as part of the Global Climate Strike. Thunberg hit out at older generations for doing little to curb carbon emissions.
Image: picture-alliance/TT NYHETSBYRÅN/P. Lundahl
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Greta Thunberg, a teenage climate activist from Sweden, on Saturday opened the Youth Climate Summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
On Friday, millions of people across the world participated in the Global Climate Strike, a weeklong protest initiated by Fridays for Future. Organizers are calling for an end to fossil fuels and want governments to implement the Paris Climate Agreement.
"Yesterday millions of people across the globe marched and demanded real climate action, especially young people. We showed that we are united and we young people are unstoppable," Thunberg said at the first of its kind Youth Climate Summit.
More than 700 young activists took part in the youth climate conference, according to Luis Alfonso de Alba, the UN special climate summit envoy. The 16-year-old Thunberg had launched the climate strike movement with her lone protest in front of the Swedish parliament about a year and a half ago.
At least 5,000 strikes in 156 countries are planned around the world to call on leaders to address climate breakdown. They are demanding action from world leaders who are gathering for a UN Climate Action Summit.
Image: Getty Images/B. Mitchell
Starting off in the South Pacific
The first strike of the day kicked off in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia. Islanders have worked hard in recent years to protect the vital coral reefs that surround the archipelago. However, rising sea levels are placing every island nation in peril.
Image: 350 Pacific via Reuters
Solomon Islands
Students in the Solomon Islands, which comprises hundreds of islands in the South Pacific, skipped school on Friday morning to call attention to how climate breakdown threatens their country.
Image: 350 Pacific via Reuters
Hundreds of thousands gather in Australia
The first major protests of the day started in Australia, where demonstrators want the government and businesses to commit to a target of zero net carbon emissions by 2030. More broadly, they are seeking for world leaders to commit to real change at an upcoming UN Climate Action Summit.
Image: Getty Images/B. Mitchell
Southeast Asia joins the movement
Thai students joined the global movement outside of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment in Bangkok. Thailand, as part of the Mekong River basin, has already felt the effects of catastrophic flooding and coastal erosin.
Image: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun
Borneo burning
Demonstrators gathered in Palangka Raya, on the Indonesnian island of Borneo, which is currently covered in smog from forest fires. Borneo is already feeling the devastation from deforestation due to palm oil farming, which has hurt the local human populations as well as dramatically reduce the habitat for orangutans.
Image: Reuters/W. Kurniawan
Dhaka demonstration
Bangladeshi school students and other climate activists took to the streets of the capital Dhaka. Bangladesh is a major hub for the garment industry, which on top of forcing workers into sweatshop conditions, is one of the most polluting industries on earth.
Image: Getty Images/A. Joyce
London crowds
An estimated 100,000 people joined a climate rally in the government district in central London. Similar marches were held in dozens of other European cities, including Paris, Stockholm and Helsinki.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/F. Augstein
Blocking traffic
Protesters got started before dawn in Germany, with demonstrations planned for almost every major city. Here in Frankfurt, climate strikers blocked rush hour traffic in the city's central Baseler Platz, unperturbed by the chorus of car horns.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Roessler
Europe calls for lower emissions
Students in the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic, called on their leaders to lower carbon emissions and enact better climate protection. The Prague demonstration was one of 5,000 planned around the world.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Rihova
Kenya against coal
Activists in Nairobi, Kenya, called for an end to the government's plans to open new coal mines. They want more support for renewable energy sources across the country.
Image: Reuters/B. Ratner
Leading the way
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who started the worldwide climate strike movement, led a major demonstration in New York City. Tens of thousands of people filled Lower Manhattan to march with the 16-year-old from Foley Square to Battery Park. "I hope this will be another social tipping point that we show how many people are engaged," she told Agence-France Presse.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
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'A change in momentum'
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also attended the youth summit and urged his generation to heed the voices of the youth.
Guterres said he sees "a change in momentum" going into Monday's Climate Action Summit, which takes place ahead of the UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders on Tuesday.
"You have started this movement," the UN secretary-general said.
"I encourage you to keep your initiative, keep your mobilization, and more and more to hold my generation accountable," Guterres said, adding that his "generation has largely failed until now to preserve both justice in the world and to preserve the planet."
President Donald Trump, who in 2017 pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement to limit the world's greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming, is not expected to attend Monday's climate meeting.
