Australia, United States, South Korea, Germany, Philippines ... Hundreds of thousands of young people demonstrated Friday, September 20 around the world for what promises to be the biggest "climate strike" ever organized since the launch of this movement, initiated in the summer of 2018 by the young Swede Greta Thunberg.

All boycott classrooms to call on adults to take action against global warming, a symbolic strike that culminates in a massive demonstration in New York, where an international climate summit will be held on Monday.

From Sydney to Seoul, via Manila, Bali, Tokyo or Mumbai, the Asia-Pacific has kicked off this global "Friday for Future" aimed at increasing the pressure on policymakers and businesses, to take drastic measures to curb the rise in temperature caused by human activities.

"What you are counting"

In total, more than 5,000 events are planned all over the planet and Greta Thunberg, who will parade in New York, called Thursday in a video the youth to appropriate the fight. "Everything counts, what you count," said the one that has become the symbol of a younger generation convinced that its elders do not do enough to fight against global warming.

As the sun rose on the Pacific, students started the day in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands or Kiribati. "We do not sink, we fight," chanted young people from these atolls, threatened in particular by the rising water levels.

In Australia, more than 300,000 people - young people, parents and others - have gathered in several cities. More than double that in March, during a similar first movement. "We are here to send a message to the people in power, to show them that we are sensitized and that this issue is important to us," Will Connor, 16, said in Sydney.

OMG the #ClimateStrike is SO big in Melbourne. Crowd estimates coming in at 100k! pic.twitter.com/UpnQHVoB2r

School Strike 4 Climate (@StrikeClimate) September 20, 2019

"We are the future and we deserve better," 12-year-old Lilly Satidtanasarn, nicknamed Thailand's Greta Thunberg, said in Bangkok for her fight against plastic. Adults "just talk, but they do not do anything."

Thousands of people marched in the Philippines, an archipelago also seriously threatened by rising oceans. "Many people are already feeling the effects of global warming, including typhoons," 23-year-old Manila Yanna Palo said.

"We see each other in the street"

In South Africa, about half a thousand people marched in the morning in Johannesburg. "Our school has allowed us to leave for the protest, if we do not do something quickly, it will be the beginning of human extinction," said Jonathan Lithgow, a 15-year-old schoolboy.

First gatherings took place across Europe. In Germany, where environmentalists have the wind in their sails, protesters have already blocked traffic in the center of Frankfurt, causing a traffic jam. In Berlin, the main event was to leave the emblematic Brandenburg Gate.

The capital is mobilized too! @ParisYFC #GlobalClimateStrike #ClimateChange #youthforclimate pic.twitter.com/gRWrJvCBMN

Youth For Climate France (@ Youth4Climateen) September 20, 2019

In Paris, 12-year-old Jeannette came to demonstrate with her father Fabrice. "It's my birthday and I asked to come, the situation makes me sad we are in the poop and we do anything," says the schoolgirl.

Companies were also mobilizing, some giving leave to their employees or even closing stores. "We see ourselves in the street", has launched the Australian pension fund Future Super, which rallied 2,000 companies to an initiative favorable to this day of strike.

What political plans to fight the climate emergency ?

This day will give New York the kickoff of two weeks of action, including Saturday the first youth summit on climate organized by the UN. In addition to Greta Thunberg, 500 young South Americans, Europeans, Asians and Africans are expected.

And another coordinated global strike will take place on Friday, 27 September, during the UN General Assembly. The special climate summit Monday at the UN headquarters is expected to bring together a hundred heads of state and government, including Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel.

With some notable exceptions, such as US President Donald Trump or his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro, many international leaders subscribe to the idea of ​​a climate emergency. But they are expected on the concrete details of their climate plans.

To have a chance to stop global warming at + 1.5 ° C (compared to the nineteenth century), the world should be carbon neutral in 2050, according to the latest consensus of scientists mandated by the UN.

With AFP