- Millions of people are expected to walk out of school and work on Friday, kicking off a week of protests calling for action to combat climate change.
- The so-called global climate strike is part of a movement led by the 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg. In the past year, children have left school to protest – and Friday’s protests invited adults to join.
- Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in protests in Australia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Kenya, Germany, the UK, and other countries, and protests are due to continue around the world.
- Visit Business Insider’s home page for more stories.
Millions of people around the world are expected to walk out of school and work on Friday as part of the global climate strike inspired by the 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg.
It is the first of several planned events ahead of and during the United Nations Climate Action Summit next week.
Strikes started in Australia on Friday morning. School Strike 4 Climate, the organizers of the event, say over 300,000 people took part across the country.
The protests and strikes are spreading across the planet over the course of the day, reaching Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America.
"This is basically the only way to have our voice heard," Nishtha Sharma, 17, of Melbourne, Australia, told Business Insider.
Here's a look at some of the protests:
Demonstrators participated in the climate strike in Thies, Senegal.
Activists hit the street in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Climate strikers marched in the streets of San Salvador, El Salvador.
An activist covered in fake blood was at a climate-change rally in Budapest, Hungary.
Protesters held banners and a giant fiery globe in Zagreb, Croatia.
Climate activists attended a rally in St. Petersburg, Russia.
A protester held up a sign as part of the "Fridays for Future" strike in Belgrade, Serbia.
Activists protested at the climate-change rally in Bucharest, Romania.
Student activists participated in the climate strike in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Students from schools across Tarawa, Kiribati, participated in the climate-change protest.
The activist Alexandria Villasenor, 14, was at the climate strike in Manhattan, New York.
Ralliers were guarded by security forces in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Young Swedish activists joined the climate strike in Stockholm. Sweden is home to the environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
Protesters in Brussels, Belgium, joined the strikes on Friday morning, as the protests spread around the world.
Protests kicked off in London, where they were officially supported by the city's mayor.
"The Government must see this strike for what it is - a demand for immediate, ambitious action," Sadiq Khan tweeted.
Demonstrators also lined the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. Protests were planned across the UK.
Demonstrations began in South Africa on Friday morning. These activists were in Cape Town.
Protests are planned across Africa. According to the UK's The Guardian newspaper, there are plans for protests in at least seven cities in Nigeria, as well as in Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
And there were protests in Abuja, Nigeria.
People also demonstrated in Greece.
Protesters gathered at monuments in Paris.
And children led protests in Denmark, including in Copenhagen.
The mayor of Copenhagen signed an open letter, along with the mayors of New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, in support of the strike.
"When your house is on fire, somebody needs to sound the alarm. Young people in our cities, displaying incredible maturity and dignity are doing just that," they wrote.
"School children are taking to the streets, drawing attention to the terrifying threat that climate breakdown poses to their future."
In the Philippines, indigenous groups joined the protests in Manila.
About 400 protests were announced across Germany. People flooded the streets of Hamburg.
And in Berlin, demonstrators stood with a rope around their necks on blocks of ice in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
Students also led protests in Ireland. About 10,000 people took to the streets of Dublin.
Protests were taking place in at least four cities and other locations across the country.
Children in Ukraine brought homemade signs.
Protesters also gathered in the Netherlands. These people marched in Amsterdam.
And young people led protests in Austria.
The protests reached Kenya, where demonstrators highlighted the damage caused by plastic waste.
Organizers said over 300,000 people took part in the protests across Australia, including these people who marched in Melbourne.
This photo shows a huge crowd in a park in Sydney.
It was tweeted by Kym Chapple, a politician with the Australian Greens Party.
The protests were largely led by students, who started the movement this year by protesting on Fridays to call for government action on climate change.
The students rejected the common criticism that they should be in school.
Danielle Porepilliasana, a high-school student in Sydney, told Reuters: "World leaders from everywhere are telling us that students need to be at school doing work. I'd like to see them at their parliaments doing their jobs for once."
People of all ages — babies, toddlers, teens, and adults — gathered across the world.
"I'm worried about the animals," Maeve, 9, from Melbourne, told Business Insider. "I'm worried about the ice melting, which isn't very good."
The top 10 carbon emitters in the country also took questions from schoolchildren on Friday.
Children in New Delhi, India, shouted slogans and held signs as they took part in the protests.
The Guardian reported that students blocked roads in New Delhi, chanting "What do we want? Climate justice."
Schoolchildren in Turkey also demonstrated.
In Istanbul, students with placards joined the strikes.
In Bangkok, Thailand, people protested in front of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. They staged a "die-in," an attempt to symbolize the consequences of climate change. They also delivered a letter to the government calling on it to declare a climate emergency and phase out coal.
Students gathered on Marovo Island in the Solomon Islands, an island chain close to Papua New Guinea.
The Solomon Islands in the Pacific are already experiencing the effects of rising sea levels, flooding, and erosion. Communities on these low-lying islands have had to relocate, and several reef islands have been lost to the sea.
People also protested in Tokyo.
And students gathered in low-lying Bangladesh to call for political leadership and action.
Students also took to the streets in Krakow, Poland.
There was also a protest in Hong Kong.
The protests also reached Cyprus.
Sarah Gray contributed to this report.
