Hundreds Of HK Teens Join Climate Change Strike

Several hundred Hong Kong students on Friday joined a worldwide strike by school children, demanding urgent action from the authorities to address climate change.

The students marched from Chater Garden to the government headquarters, where they delivered letters and position papers addressed to Chief Executive Carrie Lam and Environment Secretary Wong Kam-sing.

Among their requests is that the government include a youth representative on its internal steering committee on climate change.

Local students were joining their peers in more than 100 countries for protests about a lack definitive action to combat climate change.

One of the organisers of the Hong Kong action, Zara Campion, said seeing so many people turn out made all their effort worth it.

"Definitely worth it," she gushed. Definitely uplifting and worth the time and effort we put it."

Campion said she hopes this will now trigger some changes in Hong Kong.

Earlier, thousands of youths had marched in Wellington and Sydney to kick off the global strike.

The move is inspired by a Swedish teen Greta Thunberg who started her own strike outside Sweden's parliament calling for action. The action spread across the world, from Europe to Australia, with students leaving classrooms and holding rallies.

The global strike on Friday aimed for 1,000 demonstrations in more than 100 countries, from Boston to Bogota, Dhaka to Durban and Lagos to London. (Additional reporting by AFP)

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