Young people rally at climate protests around the world

By Angela Dewan, Aditi Sangal, Isabelle Jani-Friend, Melissa Mahtani and Meg Wagner, CNN

Updated 8:00 p.m. ET, September 24, 2021
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10:57 a.m. ET, September 24, 2021

"They simply don’t give a damn about us," Greta Thunberg tells climate protesters in Berlin

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks to demonstrators taking part in Fridays for Future's global climate strike in Berlin, Germany.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks to demonstrators taking part in Fridays for Future's global climate strike in Berlin, Germany. (Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images)

Founder of the Fridays for Future movement, Greta Thunberg, is addressing crowds of protesters in Berlin – two days before Germany goes to the polls.

"Theres no going back now, we can still turn this around, people are ready for change, we want change, we demand change and we are the change," Thunberg said.

The country has the highest number of youth protests planned for Friday, with more than 400 scheduled to take place.

"Yes, we must vote, you must vote, but remember that voting only will not be enough. We must keep going into the streets," Thunberg said that in direct reference to Sunday's election.

"(It’s not an overstatement to say) They simply don’t give a damn about us," she said talking about German politicians and political parties.

"We need to become all climate activists and we need to uproot the system," Thunberg added.

Watch:

9:57 a.m. ET, September 24, 2021

Youth protesters in Istanbul are hosting a vegan picnic to address the climate crisis

From CNN's Isabelle Jani-Friend

Protesters in Istanbul join the global Fridays for Future protests.
Protesters in Istanbul join the global Fridays for Future protests. Courtesy Ozlem Teke

Climate activists in Istanbul are holding a vegan picnic to start their protests against the climate crisis. Images from the picnic show youth activists sitting on blankets, eating food and holding signs calling for action.

It is the first climate strike since the Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan announced at the UN on Tuesday that Turkey will bring the Paris Agreement to parliament for approval next month ahead of COP26.

Climate activists in Istanbul start protests with a vegan picnic.
Climate activists in Istanbul start protests with a vegan picnic.  Courtesy Ozlem Teke

Turkey signed the Paris agreement in 2016 but was one of the six countries that did not ratify it, along with Eritrea, İran, Iraq, Libya, Yemen.

This is a big step forward, but many activists are still calling for further action.

Turkey is vulnerable to climate change, and this summer saw some of the worst wildfires in the country's history. Soon after, heavy flash floods swept across Turkish Black Sea provinces, killing dozens of people in the north.

9:56 a.m. ET, September 24, 2021

For years, this activist chronicled the frontlines of the youth climate movement

From CNN's Rachel Ramirez and Melissa Mahtani

A file photo of Slater Jewell-Kemker as she attends the Global Green 2019 Pre-Oscar Gala at in Los Angeles, California on February 20, 2019.
A file photo of Slater Jewell-Kemker as she attends the Global Green 2019 Pre-Oscar Gala at in Los Angeles, California on February 20, 2019. (Tommaso Boddi/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

Canadian youth climate activist and filmmaker Slater Jewell-Kemker premiered her feature documentary “Youth Unstoppable” on Thursday night, ahead of Friday's global protests.

Jewell-Kemker began chronicling the stories of young climate activists around the world at 15 years old. After years of filming and meeting young people from Nepal to Paris and Japan, her documentary shows the authenticity of the evolution of the youth climate movement.

“Over the past 15 years, the movement has changed a lot and has come into its own and challenged its own identity of being a youth movement,” she told CNN. “Some of the most meaningful things I've seen are how diverse it's become, how Indigenous leaders and young people and voices are becoming more and more the core and the heart of this movement.” 

Like many climate activists today, her journey into activism began after she watched the climate documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" at a young age and grew frustrated with the lack of action.

“I wasn't sure how I could be involved. I wasn't necessarily going to be the kid who went out and chained herself to a reactor refinery,” she said. “But I had a camera and I knew how to talk to people and ask them questions. And so for me, it felt like that was how I could be a part of the movement, how I could be an activist. And it just kind of grew from there.”

Jewell-Kemker said she joined the climate protests in Paris in 2015 and was injured when police fired tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons on the Champs-Elysées. “I felt so overwhelmed, I felt so terrified by this story of how we're in this really horrific point in time, and it doesn't seem like most people are doing anything about it,” she said.

“And it really felt like here is an older generation, coming in and saying ‘this is what the rest of your life will be like,’ and I felt like I had no say in my future.”

After Thursday's global premiere of "Youth Unstoppable," Jewell-Kemker told CNN she felt relieved, after the many years that went into making it.

"Young people need to be reminded that they are part of something bigger than ourselves and that we do have the power to change things," she said.

Her documentary is currently being shown for free on WaterBear, a streaming platform focused on climate change, biodiversity and nature. It will also be screened at the upcoming COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, this November.

9:31 a.m. ET, September 24, 2021

UN secretary general said the world is "moving in the wrong direction" on climate. Here's what he recommends.

From CNN's Aditi Sangal

At the United Nations General Assembly meeting of world leaders on Tuesday, Secretary General António Guterres sounded the alarm on climate crisis, saying that the world is "moving in the wrong direction."

The window to keep the Paris Climate agreement's goals alive is "rapidly closing," he warned.

"Climate scientists tell us it is not too late to keep alive the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. But the window is rapidly closing. We need a 45% cut in emissions by 2030. Yet a recent UN report made clear that with present national climate commitments, emissions will go up by 16% by 2030."

"That would condemn us to a hellscape of temperature rises of at least 2.7 degrees above pre-industrial levels – a catastrophe," he added.

Looking ahead at the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, Guterres said the world is "seemingly light years away from reaching our targets."

Highlighting that the OECD reported a gap of at least $20 billion in essential and promised climate finance to developing countries, he outlined his recommendations and called on multiple stakeholders to escalate the momentum in global action against climate change, especially in the areas of mitigation, finance and adaptation.

  • Countries should commit to carbon neutrality by mid-century, and to concrete 2030 emissions reductions targets that will get us there, backed up with credible actions now.
  • Developing nations should finally see the promised $100 billion a year for climate action, fully mobilizing the resources of both international financial institutions and the private sector too.
  • Developed countries should fulfill their promise of credible support to developing countries to build resilience to save lives and livelihoods. This means 50% of all climate finance provided by developed countries and multilateral development banks should be dedicated to adaptation.

In his message to every member states, he said, "don’t wait for others to make the first move. Do your part."

Countries have the "opportunity and the obligation to act," he said, as he made green policy recommendations.

"Governments must also summon the full force of their fiscal policymaking powers to make the shift to green economies. By taxing carbon and pollution instead of people’s income to more easily make the switch to sustainable green jobs. By ending subsidies to fossil fuels and freeing up resources to invest back into health care, education, renewable energy, sustainable food systems, and social protections for their people. By committing to no new coal plants," he said.

The Paris targets "will go up in smoke" if all planned coal power plants become operational, he warned.

8:42 a.m. ET, September 24, 2021

Bangladeshi protesters demand end to fossil fuels

From CNN's Isabelle Jani-Friend

Protesters in Barishal, Bangladesh join the global climate protests on September 24.
Protesters in Barishal, Bangladesh join the global climate protests on September 24. (Fridays For Future MAPA/Twitter)

Youth protesters in Bangladesh took part in Fridays for Future's global strike, calling on its government to scrap planned new coal and gas projects. Images from the protests show activists holding banners demanding system change and climate justice.

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the climate crisis and activists are calling for a Green New Deal, like the European Union's, with a move away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy. 

Carbon emission output from Bangladesh remains low, but the country is burdened by the climate crisis. The Environmental Justice Foundation estimates that one in seven people in Bangladesh could be displaced by climate change by 2050.

Protesters there are demanding that planned new coal and gas power stations are scrapped, with particular pressure for the cancellation of the Matarbari Ultra Super Critical Coal-Fired Power Project, in the Moheshkhali area.

The power project is seeking to generate 2400 MW of electricity, but protesters are concerned about its potential impacts on the environment and on the livelihoods of local residents.

Climate activists from MAPA (Most Affected People and Areas) countries, which includes Bangladesh, are calling for “colonizers of the north” to pay their climate debt to compensate poorer nations for the damage caused from the climate crisis.

8:28 a.m. ET, September 24, 2021

'I blame the older generation for messing things up for us,' says protester in Berlin

From CNN's Nadine Schmidt and photos by Inke Kappeler in Berlin

(Inke Kappeler/CNN)
(Inke Kappeler/CNN)

Protesters gathered outside the Reichstag, which houses the lower chamber of Germany's parliament, in central Berlin complained that young people were being squeezed out of politics ahead of the weekend election.

Others who were old enough to vote said their voices were being drowned out by the country's aging population.

Amadeus Truman
Amadeus Truman (Inke Kappeler/CNN)

Amadeus Truman, a 27-year-old German literature student living in Berlin, has worked with Fridays for Future for more than two years, describing climate action and justice as his passion.

"The parties fighting now for the German parliament on Sunday have let us down. They are so many parties who are telling us they want to cut emissions and it’s on their top agenda, but they don’t have the measures in place, and have not told us how they are going about doing this," he told CNN.

“I think young people in Germany are highly underrepresented in politics, in the party and voting system – there are so many elderly people that vote and our voices all young people under 40 do not count as much as for those who are, for example, 60 years and older because we have so many elderly people."

Wolfgang Wolman
Wolfgang Wolman (Inke Kappeler/CNN)

Wolfgang Wolman, a 27-year-old film editor from Berlin, said he didn't hold much hope the country's next government would bring about the climate action needed.

“I blame the older generation for messing things up for us – not personally but in the total of society. They did not take a chance to do anything for us," he said.

"Politicians had the chance to do something about climate change but they have failed us."

Katharina Hetzel
Katharina Hetzel (Inke Kappeler/CNN)

Katharina Hetzel, a 22-year-old interning with Greenpeace and studying social sciences, said that politicians were "doing nothing or way too little."

"So that’s why we have to be here. We want a good life – we want to protect our lives and that of our children and future generations to come. And of course, we have to protect Mother Earth," she said.

"Politicians have not seen climate change as a big problem of our times and they thought it wouldn't get worse. They simply did not think about us. They thought about their own lives and wellbeing. I really do feel they have forgotten us. I do think that our entire young generations thinks the same – that’s why we are here.”

She said that she wanted to see more young people in politics, including in parliament.

"If we look at the government there are a lot more older people than younger people and I believe the average age for members of parliament in the Bundestag is over 40 years old, so all the young people, their voices, their thoughts are not being respected or heard."

7:49 a.m. ET, September 24, 2021

What is Fridays for Future and how did it begin?

From CNN's Aditi Sangal in New York

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, center, joins a Fridays for Future global climate strike in Berlin, Germany on Friday, September 24.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, center, joins a Fridays for Future global climate strike in Berlin, Germany on Friday, September 24. (Michael Sohn/AP)

Fridays for Future (FFF) is a youth-driven global climate strike movement that started in August 2018, when then 15-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg skipped school and staged sit-ins on Fridays outside the Swedish Parliament.

In the three weeks leading up to the Swedish election, she sat outside the Parliament every school day, demanding urgent action on the climate crisis.

Thunberg leads a school strike and sits outside of Riksdagen, the Swedish parliament building, in order to raise awareness for climate change on August 28, 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Thunberg leads a school strike and sits outside of Riksdagen, the Swedish parliament building, in order to raise awareness for climate change on August 28, 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden. (Michael Campanella/Getty Images)

Soon, others joined and the group decided to continue their strike until Swedish authorities implemented policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They wanted climate efforts to be in line with goals under the 2015 Paris Agreement to contain global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, but preferably 1.5 degrees, above preindustrial levels. Very few countries are in line with that goal right now.

The strikers created the hashtag #FridaysForFuture and encouraged other young people all over the world to join them. They sometimes coordinate their protests, like those today, expected in more than 1,400 locations around the world.

7:43 a.m. ET, September 24, 2021

Young Germans protest as their country heads for a climate-focused election

From Sheena McKenzie in Reinhardswald, Germany

Gazing out from the rocky ledge of Sleeping Beauty's castle in central Germany, the countryside below stretches out in a patchwork of light and dark green forests before stopping dead.

At the heart of this lush landscape sits a swath of dry, bare earth. The ground is empty, save for a few ghostly white trunks pointing skywards.

Bark beetle infestations worsened by drought conditions and warmer weather brought by climate change has weakened the trees at the Reinhardswald nature park, the scene of childhood favorite fairy takes, like Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hoo

Characters perform "Little Red Riding Hood" at the monestery garden.
Characters perform "Little Red Riding Hood" at the monestery garden.

"Once the bark has peeled off, the trees look a bit like bones," said Peter Meyer, head of forest nature conservation at the North-West German Forest Research Institute in Göttingen and Hann Münden.

"Then the beetle can just drill into the tree, lay eggs underneath the bark, and the larvae feed on the tree, interrupting the water supply, and that makes the tree die," Meyer explains.

"Drought is the trigger for bark beetle infestations."

Germany has suffered historic drought in recent years and 2018 was the warmest since records began 140 years ago. In other parts of the country this summer, rain has fallen hard and fast, triggering deadly floods.

All of these events have put the climate crisis squarely on the campaign trail ahead of Germany's federal election on Sunday. It's the first in 16 years that won't feature Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the candidates vying to replace her are all pitching their climate credentials.

Read the full story here:

7:36 a.m. ET, September 24, 2021

Turkish youths to join strikes in Istanbul

From CNN's Isil Sariyuce in Istanbul

Turkish students will join Fridays for Future's global strike in Istanbul at 2 p.m. local time.

It is the first strike after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday that his country would bring the Paris Agreement to parliament to be ratified in one month.

Turkey is one among just a handful of more than 190 nations that signed up to the Paris Agreement in 2015 but has not yet ratified it with legislation. It's the only G20 nation yet to do so.