Fridays for Future global climate strike -- live updates

[nitpicker]

https://www.dw.com/en/fridays-for-future-global-climate-strike-live-updates/a-50505537

+++ Fridays for Future global climate strike — live updates +++

More than 5,000 protests are planned around the world, culminating in a New York City march led by Greta Thunberg. In Australia, young people challenged politicians to do "their jobs for once." Read the latest here.

Hundreds of thousands of people were planning to participate in some 5,000 events in 156 countries on Friday
The rallies are timed to come ahead of a UN climate summit and inspired by the 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg
The marches will culminate in New York, where Thunberg will lead a march to the UN headquarters

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.

11:42 In Berlin, Sea Watch Captain Carola Rackete tells the crowd: "we adults are responsible for the fact that the earth is dying....we should not be under the illusion that our individual actions can do anything to turn the situation around." She called on everyone to join an Extinction Rebellion protest scheduled for October 7, promising that "this will not end here."

11:01 Tens of thousands of South Africans took to the streets of Johannesburg, calling for a ban on new coal power stations and new fossil fuel mining licenses and a commitment to using only renewable energy by 2030. Outside the Gauteng provincial legislature, protestors delivered a memorandum declaring that "climate change is the greatest threat we are faced with."

10:16 People began gathering in London near the Thames as part of the UK's more than 200 pro-climate events scheduled for Friday. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn is due to address strikers outside parliament later in the day.

"This is going to be the biggest climate mobilization that the UK, and the world, has ever seen," Youth Strike 4 Climate tweeted late morning.
10:04

As Berlin protesters began to gather at the Brandenburg gate, other smaller cities held climate strikes as well, including Essen and Bremen. 17,000 people in the Black Forest city of Freiburg marched through the town center, which is closed to vehicle traffic for environmental reasons.

"This is an impressive and strong signal from our citizens," said Freiburg Mayor Martin Horn.

09:28 Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Development Program, said Germany must take a more active role in fighting climate breakdown. Chancellor Angela Merkel was once known as the "climate chancellor" but in recent years, she appears to have set those priorities aside.

"Hopefully she will present at the climate summit a German level of ambition that ëreflects the country's capacity, but also its responsibility," he said in New York.

"Right now, Germany has been struggling to meet the short-term targets that it's set itself in its own climate strategy. And clearly that is something that neither the government nor industry nor the public in Germany wants to continue," Steiner added.

09:10 Other European nations, including the Czech Republic and Poland, joined Germany to take part in the pro-climate action. Thousands of young people gathered in Warsaw and Prague. In Poland, organizers described the turnout as "massive."
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