Climate protesters hit the streets worldwide, resuming a pre-pandemic rite

(CN) — Ahead of a major United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, activists around the globe hit the streets on Friday to urge world leaders to take drastic steps to reduce carbon emissions and slow global warming.

The protests were part of the “Fridays for Future” movement launched by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg. In 2018, Thunberg, who was then 15, became the leader of a youth movement demanding immediate and dramatic action by governments to stop global warming. She gained international fame and a global following after she began taking Fridays off from her school in Stockholm and staging solo protests outside the Swedish parliament with a sign reading “School strike for climate.”

Friday's demonstrations are part of a push to get world leaders to make strong commitments to cut carbon emissions and slow global warming at a U.N. conference on climate between Oct. 1 and Nov. 12 in Glasgow.

In recent days, the United States and China, the world's top polluters, both made significant, though hardly sufficient, pledges. China said it will end financing for coal-fired power plants outside its borders and the U.S. says it will double its climate financing for vulnerable countries and it is pushing to reduce global methane emissions.

Germany was the site of the most demonstrations on Friday, ahead of federal elections taking place on Sunday. Thunberg traveled to Berlin for a protest outside the Bundestag building.

"It is clearer than ever that no political party is doing close to enough," the 18-year-old Thunberg said. "But it's even worse than that. Not even their proposed commitments are close to being in line with what would be needed to fulfill the Paris Agreement.

"Yes, we must vote, you must vote, but remember that voting only will not be enough," she continued. "We must keep going into the streets."

Germany's Green Party is pushing for drastic actions to stop global warming, including an end to coal plants and the sale of combustion engine vehicles by 2030, but Thunberg did not offer her endorsement of the party Friday. Placing third in polls, the Greens nevertheless have a good chance to become part of a ruling coalition.

“We have water catastrophes, fire catastrophes, the world is burning. This is the very last warning," said Christiane Koetter-Lietz, who protested with her children and grandchildren outside the Reichstag in Berlin on Friday.

The 69-year-old from the western town of Unna told the Associated Press on Friday that said she would be voting for Germany's Green party.

Rene Bohrenfeldt, a 36-year-old IT expert at the Berlin rally, said adults should be as committed as teens to the fight.

“The majority of voters are older than 50 and determine the outcome of the election,” Bohrenfeldt told the AP. “I appeal to all grandmothers to make the right decision for the climate and for their grandchildren.”

Leading the polls in Germany are Social Democrat Olaf Scholz and Armin Laschet from Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats. The candidates for chancellor are set to address crowds later Friday in Cologne and Munich, respectively.

As in Germany, a similar political focus on the planet is on display in Iceland, where voters heads to the polls for a general election on Saturday. Though each candidate for parliament there has acknowledged global warming as a force of change in a sub-Arctic landscape, they disagree on how to respond to it.

In Great Britain, police arrested about 17 activists who blocked the port of Dover. The group demanded the government better insulate homes across Britain to help cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union. Follow him on Twitter

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