Students around the country march in climate action protest

Students are marching on the Dáil this lunchtime demanding the Government takes action against climate change.

Students around the country march in climate action protest

Students are marching on the Dáil this lunchtime demanding the Government takes action against climate change.

Protests are taking place around the country, with students demonstrating outside their local authorities and school gates.

This is part of a global action in an escalating movement among young people that was started by 16-year-old Swedish student Greta Thurnberg.

Students have issued the Government with six demands, including asking them to crack down on companies that are contributing to the problem.

Thirteen-year-old Lucy Dunne says if no action is taken, her future could be lost.

"We only have 11 years left to drastically cut our emissions and by then I will only be 24 - which will be the prime of my life, some would say.

"Just to think that if nothing happens now I might not even have a future, I might not have the future that I have dreamed for."

The protest includes hundreds of students from dozens of Cork schools.

Cork school students marching for action on climate change as part of the Global Climate Strike. Picture: Jack Squibb
Cork school students marching for action on climate change as part of the Global Climate Strike. Picture: Jack Squibb

Large crowds gathered in Emmett Place near the city's Opera House more than an hour before the match was due to start.

The message was loud and clear: We want change now.

Chants of "change now" and "leave your carbon in the soil" could be heard as the students marched through the city to Cork's City Hall with huge numbers of pedestrians and shoppers showing their support.

Placards called for immediate action on climate change.

Slogans such a "the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it" made it clear that these students have had enough.

Meanwhile, youngsters have staged events in 100 British towns and cities including London, Edinburgh, Canterbury, Oxford and Cambridge calling for urgent action to tackle climate change, cut emissions and switch to renewable energy.

Anna Taylor, 17, from north London – co-founder of the UK Student Climate Network, said the Government was failing to recognise the severity of the crisis.

“They’re failing to make environmental reform and environmental policy a priority, they focusing on economic policy and Brexit and failing to address the climate crisis facing us.”

-Additional reporting Kevin O'Neill

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