By Mark Duell for MailOnline
Published: 02:48 EDT, 15 February 2019 | Updated: 09:57 EDT, 26 February 2019
Thousands of schoolchildren hit the streets of Britain today as they went on strike from school to protest over climate change - but the Prime Minister slammed them for 'wasting lesson time'.
Youngsters walked out of lessons for the Youth Strike 4 Climate protests in 60 towns and cities across the UK from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands, leaving many parents concerned they would face a £60 fine for truancy.
The Met Police confirmed that three teenagers were arrested in London today - two for obstruction of the highway and one for a public order offence.
A 15-year-old girl was initially arrested for a public order offence, but was subsequently de-arrested.
Parents have been divided on social media over whether their children should go on strike one day before half-term, amid concerns over the walkouts in London being hijacked by hard-line climate groups and career activists.
Some of the teenagers in Westminster stood on the statues of former prime ministers David Lloyd George and Sir Winston Churchill at Parliament Square, with others carrying placards bearing Socialist Worker logos.
Young people boarded an open top city tour bus, climbing to the top deck to bringing roads in the area to a standstill. Hundreds of pupils, holding signs, chanted 'We're not moving' as they blocked traffic from moving.
Students want the Government to declare a climate emergency and take active steps to tackle the problem, tell the public more about the size of the ecological crisis and reform the curriculum so it is an educational priority.
The pupils began to slope off at 3.30pm - the usual time for the school bell - after bringing Whitehall to standstill
But in their wake came more than a hundred taxis to cause gridlock in protest at plans to ban the iconic black cabs from certain roads.
Scores of vehicles were parked around Parliament Square, while surrounding roads were brought to a total standstill.
The protest comes after similar roadblocks by taxis in the past months on London Bridge and Tottenham Court Road.
Students from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement demonstrate at Parliament Square in Westminster this afternoon
A student poses in handcuffs after being arrested in their school uniform on Parliament Square in Westminster today
Girls in school uniform pose next a police van as they enjoy the climate march at Parliament Square in Westminster today
A man is arrested at Parliament Square in Westminster today during the protests organised by Youth Strike 4 Climate
Students stand on the David Lloyd George statue as they protest at Parliament Square in Westminster this morning
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Protesters on the Sir Winston Churchill statue at Parliament Square in Westminster (left) and another in the area (right)
Girls from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement during a climate change protest on Parliament Square in Westminster today
Protesters at a Youth Strike 4 Climate demonstration outside Shire Hall in Cambridge this morning
Students walk through Brighton as they carry out a Youth Strike 4 Climate protest in the Sussex seaside town today
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas described the students' as 'inspiring' as she joined a protest, but school leaders and Education Secretary Damian Hinds have warned students they should not miss lessons to take part in the strikes.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Theresa May urged pupils to stop timewasting, saying it was 'important to emphasise that disruption increases teachers' workloads and wastes lesson time that teachers have carefully prepared for'.
Parents could be fined £60 if they allow their child to take an unauthorised absence in some areas where schools are under pressure from councils - despite others actively encouraging children to make banners and attend.
Some schools backing the protests posted pictures on social media of their children attending rallies, while Devon County Council said it 'fully welcomes and supports the aims of young people across the UK' today.
Among the banners held by pupils holding demonstrations across the country today were 'global warming isn't cool', 'there is no Planet B', 'when did the children become the adults' and 'don't burn our future'.
However, the National Association of Head Teachers has told members to not authorise truancy and instead help children 'engage with social issues' in other ways, such as discussions in class or at lunchtime.
The Government has insisted the issue is a matter for individual headteachers to deal with, but it is understood ministers would not expect absence to be granted simply for a protest.
Students stand on the statue of Winston Churchill as they protest at Parliament Square in Westminster this morning
Some have critised the protest, including Toby Young, former director of the New Schools Network, who said: 'Calling this a strike is ridiculous. What are they going to do? Down pencils? This is just truanting.'
The Youth Strike 4 Climate movement has already seen strikes in Australia, Switzerland and Belgium, and has been inspired by Greta Thunberg, 16, who protests every Friday outside Sweden's parliament to urge leaders to tackle climate change.
The strikes come in the wake of a UN report which warned that limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, beyond which climate impacts become increasingly severe, requires unprecedented action.
That includes cutting global carbon dioxide emissions by almost half within 12 years. They also want recognition that young people have the biggest stake in the future, should be involved in policymaking, and that the voting age should be lowered to 16.
In Parliament Square, two students brandishing a bottle of champagne climbed on to the roof of the number 11 bus to Fulham Broadway. Traffic around the square in central London was at a standstill after students blocked traffic by sitting in the roads.
Some young protesters climbed to the top of traffic lights around Parliament Square bearing banners and placards. Others climbed the statues in the square, including the one of Churchill, while placards were hung from the statue of Lloyd George, with one reading: 'you can have capitalism or you can have the planet'.
Mounted police and other officers tried to move the protesters off the roads and on to the pavements.
Some students at the protest in Parliament Square were seen drinking alcohol from bottles disguised by paper bags. Others ripped up homemade signs, chanting 'f*** Theresa May'.
Meanwhile, another student speaking over a loudspeaker said that 'violence' was unnecessary, pleading with the crowd to keep the protests peaceful.
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Students from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement during a climate change protest on Canterbury high street in Kent today
Students stand around the statue of former prime minister Winston Churchill at Parliament Square in Westminster today
Students take part in a climate change protest outside the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff today
Students from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement during a climate change protest today in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
Police stand guard in front of Downing Street as students take part in a climate change protest in Westminster today
Students from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement shout and hold placards during the protest at Parliament Square today
The girl, who did not say her name, told the crowd: 'If we're angry and promote violence, that's not going to help us. We need positivity.'
Students hold placards and shout slogans as they take part in the climate change protest at Parliament Square today
Police have begun moving on some of the protesters sitting in the road, but many groups remain. A team of officers is moving from group to group while mounted officers try to herd crowds off the road.
Dozens of protesters had blocked a number 87 bus to Wandsworth from turning from Parliament Street into Bridge Street. Some sat in front of the bus while others stood in a close-knit huddle.
Drummers were beating out a rhythm while the group - many bearing signs and placards - chanted and shouted. A man was loudly booed after turning up with a megaphone and saying: 'We're all going to die, what are you worried about extinction for?'
Police have formed a wall in front of a bus where two people were surrounded by officers. A dozen officers encircled the pair. It is not clear how old they are. Bystanders said the pair had been arrested for sitting in front of the bus.
An unnamed protester has been arrested and taken away in handcuffs. According to a friend, the protester was sitting in front of a double-decker bus, blocking it from moving.
Student protesters had met in Parliament Square to call for action. Nico, 13, said that protesting about climate change was not a 'chance to bunk off school', but a push for a better future. It's our future and people in our generation should be fighting (for) what we're going to be living through.'
She added the Government 'isn't really prioritising the environment' and that it is 'much more important than anything that's going on now'. The pupil has already made protecting the environment her priority, having petitioned her school to remove the use of disposable cutlery from its canteen.
Students hold placards and shout slogans as they take part in the climate change protest at Parliament Square today
Students go on strike over the perceived lack of action on climate change, outside Parliament Square in Westminster today
Students from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement outside the gates of Downing Street during the protest today
Thousands of schoolchildren take part in the huge student climate march at Parliament Square in Westminster today
A young girl holds a banner saying 'I want you to panic' at Parliament Square today during the climate change march
She said: 'We started a petition at our school to get rid of the plastic cutlery because we think it's so unnecessary and it's bad for the environment. We're hoping that the Government will become more aware of it and start making a change.'
Alexandar Gyurov, 17, said he was at the protests in Parliament Square to 'raise awareness for climate change and get a bit of a 'move on' in terms of getting governments to change their ways of acting and going with a greener approach to things'.
The walk-out is being organised by the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement, which has been encouraging children and their parents on social media to join in.
Students in the UK are demanding the Government declare a climate emergency and take active steps to tackle the problem, communicate the severity of the ecological crisis to the public and reform the curriculum to make it an educational priority.
They also want recognition that young people have the biggest stake in the future, should be involved in policymaking, and that the voting age should be lowered to 16.
Youth Strike 4 Climate expects thousands of children - some as young as nine - to walk out at 11am and join protests in 40 towns and cities including Leeds, Bristol, Oxford and Exeter.
The campaign leaders are being advised by militant green group, Extinction Rebellion, whose roadblocks brought parts of London to a standstill in November.
Campaigners have put together a slick public relations operation, providing children with template letters to schools which can be signed by their parents. There are also campaign leaflets and model messages which can be uploaded and shared on Whatsapp and Facebook.
'I think it's important to raise awareness about this problem and to put pressure on the Government and the people to take action now.'
One 14-year-old London schoolgirl, whose parents both support her decision to skip school to protest, said: 'Brexit won't matter if we don't have a world to live in'.
Pupils from across the country met in the capital to 'take a stand against emissions' as the crowds chanted 'Oh Jeremy Corbyn' and there was a return of 'f*** Theresa May'.
But not everyone saw it that way - with some claiming they 'just wanted the day off school' - labelling the protest as 'bulls***.'
The protesters marched from Parliament Square to Downing Street holding hundreds of placards as traffic was brought to a standstill.
One motorist said: 'They ought to be in school, these are the kind that won't even want to work like the rest of us.'
About 30 protesters sat down in the road while mounted police watched from the edge of the crowd and a helicopter whirled overhead.
Zara Sajovic, 17, from Elephant and Castle, south London, said: 'It's a very good that kids are here - this is for their future. It's much better for the kids to be here, but others wanted to protest things like Brexit and didn't come.'
Logan Wijay, a foreign affairs adviser, took the day off work to join his daughter to protest. He said: 'I'm glad to be here with my daughter. Although her school gave permission for all girls to attend, my daughter was the only student to attend from her class.'
Catherine Barley, 44, was protesting outside Number Ten with her two sons. She said: 'I don't think that anything else is working. The kids being off school works. There's no excuse.'
A student from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement climbs onto an Undergound sign next to Westminster station today
Green party MP Caroline Lucas speaks to students from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement in Brighton today
Thousands of students gather at the Youth Strike 4 Climate protest at the New County Hall in Truro, Cornwall, today
Children from schools around Bristol skip class to protest climate change at College Green in the city today
Students gather at the Youth Strike 4 Climate environmental protest in Truro today
Elijah Caled holds a sign saying 'protect our planet' as he joins thousands of students at the New County Hall in Truro today
Her son, Maxwell Barley, ten, a student at Corpus Christi, Brixton, said: 'We shouldn't have to deal with this in the first place.'
But one student held a sign reading 'we're only here for a day off skl'. His friends added: 'We think that climate change is bulls*** - there's too many feminazis here, too.'
A girl climbs onto a traffic light during the Parliament Square climate change protest in Westminster today
The teenagers said they had travelled to the capital from Brighton for 'a fun day out'. Children gathered and chanted outside Westminster Station, carrying signs reading 'the climate is changing, why won't we' and 'eco not ego'.
While a student with a microphone let out cries of 'F*** Teresa May' - with a dozen others joining him as he singled out the PM.
School governor Rachel Wrangham, 44, said: 'I'm here to join the protest against the appalling fact of climate change on all our lives.
'I'm joined here by my three children, Alexander, 11, Robin, six and Catherine, nine. They are missing school, they have been given permission for off-site education.
'The best way of bringing about change would be if our politicians did what they were ought to do and led. But given that they won't do it that, ordinary people won't don't have many options, so this a good one.
Her son Robert, six, said: 'I'm here to stop climate change. I care about the world, I like turtles, fish and sharks. It's nice having a day off school, it's very hot.'
While her other child, Alexander, 11, said: 'This is not just about having a day off school. This is a way of getting attention, to allow people to at least say something. We want to make our point that this destroying our world. We are helpless.'
The children went to Kentish Town Church of England primary school and Acland Burleigh secondary school in Tufnell Park.
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The Government has insisted the issue of absence is a matter for individual headteachers to deal. Pictured: Parliament Square
Students from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement shout slogans and hold banners at Parliament Square this morning
In Brighton, nearly 1,000 children and college students stayed away from school to take part in the strike
Students take part in the climate change demonstration in London, with one holding a sign saying: 'Respect your mother'
Students from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement march through Canterbury high street in Kent today
Shirtless youths clung to traffic lights while police attempted to allow drivers to pass through a sea of left-wing banners during the pupil strike in Whitehall.
Roger Hallam (pictured) is one of those backing the marches
The 52-year-old is one of the founders of Extinction Rebellion. The veteran campaigner, who is researching a PhD in effective radical campaigning, went on hunger strike in 2017 to demand King's College London stop investing in fossil fuels. He became interested in climate change in his 40s when an organic farm he ran in Wales went bankrupt because of extreme weather conditions.
Son of Vivienne Westwood and Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. The 51-year-old campaigner against climate change and fracking, who founded lingerie company Agent Provocateur, once burnt an estimated £5million of punk memorabilia during a protest.
Former turtle ranger Jake Woodier is the key frontman behind the demonstrations
The former turtle conservation ranger is the key frontman. A full-time 'campaigner and activist', Woodier, 26, pictured below, ran a vegan cafe in Somerset but now lives in Brighton.
A veteran of helping organise school strikes in Sweden – where she is an academic in the economics department of Stockholm University – O'Keeffe said involving children generates powerful publicity. She has links with activists in Australia, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Denmark, Finland and Netherlands and brings her radical expertise to the British children's movement. She says pupils should strike until 3pm before adults take over 'and do civil disobedience... such as blocking the road'.
The ex-paratrooper, 57, is a vociferous Extinction Rebellion supporter. The fanatical Remainer boasts he is preparing to run a soup kitchen for the starving after Brexit.
One girl, thought to be 15, was put into the back of a police van after telling an officer to 'f*** off' repeatedly. Children sat in the road, forcing bus drivers to abandon their vehicles as they tried to negotiate with protesters.
One lorry driver was sat in his cab stuck in the gridlock for three hours - after starting his shift in Gravesend, Kent, at 6.30am.
He said: 'This is stupid, don't they realise how the world works, this has put me right out. I'm not convinced - they say my emissions are ruining the world - but how do they think they get deliveries.
'Everything they've got, iPhones, clothes and even food, came from a truck like mine. They have zero perspective.'
Protester Lauren Wright, 16, said: 'The revolution will be soon - we've had enough of corporations.'
When asked about the measures taken by the government to reduce carbon emission, she laughed.
Lauren said: 'F*** climate change, they are not doing enough, they're all the same. I'm feeling pumped. 'We are coming back in March, we want change and we want it now. F*** Theresa May.'
One teenage protester said children must 'rise up' against adults and homework. She said: 'We are here today because adults told us we should be doing homework.
'The future of the planet is in our hands, no one here today is reporting this. Why have we waited until there's 12 years of the world left. Why have we been betrayed by those older than us.'
'We will not stand by and do nothing. We are watching the governments response. This is the only way we will achieve anything and we will now rise up.'
Susan Barton, 48, who travelled with her children from the Isle of Wight this morning, said: 'My children wanted to have their voice heard. I obviously would have preferred them to be in school, but a seven year old can't come on his own.'
Protesters stood in Parliament Square while pupils took turns giving speeches. Some were trained speakers, blasting the government and fossil fuels in well-crafted vitriol.
Others stumbled through speeches where they discussed why their science A levels made them experts. Some students danced with flowers in their hair, others smoked suspicious-looking cigarettes.
In between speeches 'No Scrubs' by TLC blared through a speaker. Discarded banners and placards piles up on the green next to the statue of military general Jan Smuts.
Another protester hung off the statue of Churchill and held a banner reading 'don't write a will.'
The protests, pictured at Parliament Square in Westminster today, are organised by Youth Strike 4 Climate and other groups
Students hold banners as they protest against climate change at Parliament Square in Westminster this morning
The demonstration at Parliament Square in Westminster today is one of the dozens of nationwide strikes for climate action
Students protest at Parliament Square today, with one holding a banner saying: 'Climate CHANGE your attitude'
Students from Graveney School in Tooting join the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement in Westminster this morning
Students from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement hold Socialist Worker banners at Parliament Square this morning
A middle-aged protester named Amlon handed out Socialist Party posters to the students. He said: 'Companies only care about profit margins, not about the environment.'
The protests follow a United Nations report released last October, warning of the unprecedented changes needed by society to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
While warming of 2C above pre-industrial levels has widely been thought of as the threshold beyond which dangerous climate change will occur, vulnerable countries such as low-lying island states warn rises above 1.5C will threaten their survival.
Their concerns meant a pledge to pursue efforts to limit temperature rises to 1.5C was included – after tough negotiations – alongside the commitment to keep them 'well below' 2C in the global Paris climate agreement in 2015.
When the target was put into the Paris Agreement, relatively little was known about the climate risks that would be avoided in a 1.5C warmer world compared with a 2C warmer world, or about the action needed to limit temperature rises to that level.
So the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was tasked with providing the answers - and the report warns the world is well off track to keep to the 1.5C limit.
Even with the promises countries have made as part of the Paris Agreement to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, the world is set to breach the 1.5C threshold by around 2040.
Based on those promises, we are heading for 3C by 2100 and even warmer after that.
As more greenhouse gases lead to more warming, stabilising the planet's temperature at any level will require emissions to fall to zero overall.
To keep temperatures from rising to more than 1.5C in the long term, countries need to cut carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and to net zero by 2050, with steep cuts in other greenhouse gases such as methane.
Methods to take excess carbon out of the atmosphere will also be needed.
Hundreds of young protesters chanted for climate justice outside Cambridgeshire County Council's offices in Cambridge.
Schoolchildren, missing lessons for the day, carried banners bearing slogans including 'there is no planet B', 'global warming isn't a prediction - it's happening' and 'when did the children become the adults?'.
One protester stood on the steps of the council's building with a megaphone and led chants of 'whose future? Our future' and 'hey, ho, fossil fuels have got to go'.
Jasper Giles, a six-year-old pupil at University of Cambridge Primary School, was at the protest with his mother Alissia Roberts.
His mother said: 'I think it's worth taking a day off school to show support for this movement. I think it's really important and it will gather momentum.'
Maria Boznikoba, 40, attended with her eight-year-old daughter Gwen who is home-schooled. 'I really worry for the future of my daughter and I don't want her to be dealing with the stuff we're going to leave behind,' she said.
Ten-year-old Zachary Hird, a pupil at Cambridge's Newnham Croft Primary School, attended with his mother Diane Hird.
He said: 'We don't want climate change and people just have to change their ways as we don't want the world as it is right now. We just want to make people aware of it. We were talking about it in our class so we just came along.'
Asked how he felt about missing lessons for the day, he said: 'I feel climate change is more important - the world dying is a lot more bad than just, yeah.'
In Brighton, nearly 1,000 children and college students stayed away from school to take part in the strike.
Despite warnings from headteachers across the city and wider Sussex area, they gathered at the Clock Tower before marching to The Level to hear Brighton MP Caroline Lucas speak.
Sussex Police struggled to cope with numbers with no road closures were in place and very few police on show to marshal the crowds and keep them out of traffic on the main road down the seafront.
Parents have taken to Twitter to discuss their thoughts on allowing children to go on protest marches instead of school today
Mother Rosie Brown from Brighton, who brought her 12-year-old daughter to the demonstration, said: 'I'm not a law breaker. I just want these children to be safe. My 12-year-old daughter is here and there are hundreds more children coming.
'It is ironic that it is the traffic that is causing the problem at a climate change demo. I'm just a member of the public and I'm concerned about safety.'
Caroline Lucas has said children missing school to campaign for action to tackle climate change should be allowed to do so because of 'exceptional circumstances'.
The Brighton Pavilion MP told thousands of campaigners taking part in the Youth Strike 4 Climate event: 'The time for talking is over, and time for action is now.'
Ms Lucas, who was met with chants of 'Oh Caroline Lucas' and 'Tories out, Greens In', told the crowd in Brighton: 'The evidence is really shocking, we have less than 12 years to get off the collision course that we're on, my generation has let you down.
'In the last 12 months there's only been one debate on climate change in Parliament. There is a better way forward.'
In Brighton, there were some jeers from the crowd as Caroline Lucas mentioned they should have been at school today.
The Green MP told the crowd: 'You shouldn't be here, you should be in class. But students should only be allowed to miss lessons in exceptional circumstances.
'The collapse of civilisations is a vital exceptional circumstance.'
Ms Lucas also referred to American congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's recently-unveiled Green New Deal as she called for a British version.
'In the US, she is calling for a Green New Deal, and here in the UK we are calling for a Green New Deal.
'What we are calling for are hundreds and thousands of good green jobs. What we are calling for is a huge investment in green energy and energy efficiency.
'I believe, and I share with you the belief, that people, at the age of 16, should get the vote.'
Caroline Lucas, the only Green Party MP, said she was 'feeling quite emotional' following the 'incredible turnout' in Brighton.
Sharing pictures of the event on Twitter, she wrote: 'This is most hopeful thing that's happened in years.
'Exciting thing is positive policies like £GreenNewDeal are taking off too. We can win this fight for a safer, fairer future!'
Earlier on in the day thousands of campaigners, young and old, circulated around the city's clock tower with banners and posters as part of the Youth Strike 4 Climate event.
As they gathered, the group began chanting anti-Tory slogans and were also critical of world leaders, including Donald Trump.
Stephen Bradley, 55, said: 'The situation in Venezuela is part of it, the United States is trying to get its hands on their oil reserves, which is going to accelerate global warming over the next few decades.'
They also shouted 'tell the truth' as student socialist groups began circulating leaflets.
Activist Connor Rosoman, 21, said: 'The Tories are a party of big business, they're not going to do anything.
'It needs to be ordinary people to make the change and turn society into something that's not based on profit.
'Nationalisation can help. We can't control what we can't own.'
Roads were then brought to a standstill as the protesters marched through the city towards the park.
Police cars and officers accompanied them throughout.
Local residents watched from their windows and cars as the group moved through the streets.
The march ended where they waited for Caroline Lucas to arrive.
Demonstrator and college student Kitty Bovaird, 16, also from Brighton, said: 'They didn't shut the road even though we have been saying millions of times we are going to do this. No-one listens.
'The government are putting profits before our planet and our future. We are here because we care about climate change and nobody is listening to us. When we try to share our opinions, they just say we are kids and we don't know what we are talking about.
A spokeswoman from Cardinal Newman Catholic School, in Hove, said: 'We support the need to tackle climate change and its devastating effects.
'However, we cannot support student attendance at this protest because we have looked into the co-ordination of the protests and have no assurances that student safety can be guaranteed.
'The event co-ordinators have not publicly outlined their protest route and have planned the gathering in a heavily congested part of the city. We do not want our students missing out on their learning.
'We will therefore not authorise any student absence to attend the protest. We have an enriching geography curriculum which teaches the issue of climate change and it encourages our students to develop their ideas about longer term solutions.'
Blatchington Mill School in Hove, called for parents to not encourage their children to skip class. Headteacher Ashley Harrold said: 'As a school we support the cause. We have been focusing on climate change as an ever-growing issue with catastrophic consequences.
'However, we cannot support the protest on today. We need students in school. We take care to plan each day of their learning, and we don't want them to miss out.
'We are not assured that the coordination of the protest is sufficient to ensure student safety as it is located in a congested area of Brighton. We feel that the protests are a superficial response to a deep-rooted socio-environmental issue.
'The protest does not highlight the wider changes required, including government targets, green taxes or student pledges that could have far-reaching consequences in the long-term fight against climate change.'
Downing Street said that while it was important for young people to engage with issues like climate change, the disruption to planned lesson time was damaging for pupils.
'Everybody wants young people to be engaged in the issues that affect them most so that we can build a brighter future for all of us,' a No 10 spokesman said.
'But it is important to emphasise that disruption increases teachers' workloads and wastes lesson time that teachers have carefully prepared for.
'That time is crucial for young people, precisely so that they can develop into the top scientists, engineers and advocates we need to help tackle this problem.'
Around 50 campaigners gathered in Birmingham's Victoria Square - meeting with the city council's leader, Ian Ward, to deliver petitions, including one from twinned schools bearing more than 200 pupils' names.
Addressing a group of protesters outside the Council House, Cllr Ward said the authority would 'stand shoulder to shoulder' with the aims of young people across the country.
Mr Ward said: 'Just yesterday I was down in London talking to the Government about their need to provide local authorities up and down this country with powers and the resources to get people out of their cars and into modern public transport powered by electric or hydrogen.'
'We all have to do our bit,' Mr Ward said. 'I think it's fantastic to see young people taking an interest in this issue.
'We have only got one chance at this. There is nowhere else we can go and live.'
In Belfast, a small but passionate crowd of young people gathered outside City Hall.
Primary and secondary school children, many holding aloft home-made signs, joined in chants calling for the authorities to act on climate change.
Maia Willis Reddick, a 17-year-old student at Belfast's Methodist College, said time was running out. 'We are protesting against the Government for their ignorance of the problem of climate change,' she said.
'We have 12 years before this becomes an international disaster, and before those 12 years we need drastic action to take place in order to reduce carbon emissions for the entirety of the UK, the entirety of the world.'
Students from Graveney School in Tooting join the Youth Strike 4 Climate protest at Parliament Square in Westminster today
Students are protesting across the towns and cities of Britain today, including at Parliament Square in Westminster today
The demonstration in Cambridge today is one of the nationwide strikes for climate action taking place across the UK
The strike is being supported by environmental campaign groups and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas in Brighton today
Maia said her school had been supportive of her and her classmates' desire to protest. 'Us leaving school means we show we value the climate the same as we value our education,' she said.
Students hold a climate demonstration in London today
'We are still very conscious about school. I have A-levels, I have stuff to do, we just want to make the point that we are willing to take drastic action in order to highlight the problems of climate change.'
Megan Hoyt, from north Belfast, accompanied her four children - Finn, Penny, Aisling and Isabelle - to the protest at City Hall.
'We are here today because we think it's time for political action,' she said. 'Personal responsibility can only take us so far. We've got our reusable coffee cups, and we've got our paper straws, and we are vegetarians and all those kind of things, but personal responsibility can only take us so far and now is the time for political leadership.
'People are angry and we are ready for something and it could be such a great moment for a new kind of politics. We are here to show there are people who want a change.'
Rachel Agnew, from Broughshane, Co Antrim, attended with son Archie, eight, and daughter Bea, five, both pupils at Broughshane Primary School.
'We have come along because I would like a future for my children, a future where we have clean energy resources. We want planet earth to be here and we want a future, that's what's important,' she said.
Nicola Sturgeon has backed youngsters who are skipping school to take part in climate change protests, describing their actions as a 'cause for optimism in an often dark world'.
Teenager Holly Gillibrand from Fort William is among those at the forefront of the Youth Strike 4 Climate protests.
The 13-year-old said it would be a 'momentous day', tweeting: 'Young people all around the UK are uniting together in solidarity to demand that our leaders treat the climate and ecological crisis as the crisis it is.'
Inspired by the similar actions of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg in Stockholm, she has stood outside Lochaber high school for the past five Fridays to take strike action.
She told the Guardian last week: 'It's the first time I have done anything like this. But I feel very angry, very scared and I see that they (political leaders) are not taking climate change seriously.'
Holly added: 'I take the bus, I am almost completely vegan, as are my parents, and my family has always been very environmentally aware.'
The First Minister spoke out as schoolchildren in Scotland joined in the global demonstration. It came despite Mr Hinds warning pupils they should not miss lessons to take part in the strikes.
But Ms Sturgeon took to Twitter to offer her support, saying: 'It's a cause for optimism, in an often dark world, that young people are taking a stand on climate change.'
While she said the Scottish Government was a 'world leader' in acting against climate change, the urgency of the issue meant 'it is right that we are all challenged to do more and that we hear the voice of the next generation'.
Teenager Holly Gillibrand from Fort William is one of those taking part in the the protest, saying it would be a 'momentous day'.
She tweeted: 'Young people all around the UK are uniting together in solidarity to demand that our leaders treat the climate and ecological crisis as the crisis it is.'
Scottish Green Party education spokesman Ross Greer urged education bosses to back pupils who are taking part in the protests rather than punish them.
He said: 'I commend every young person in Scotland and across the world who is joining this growing movement and speaking out against this existential threat to their future.'
He stressed the Curriculum for Excellence system in Scottish schools 'is based on the idea that we support our young people to become responsible citizens'.
Mr Greer added: 'Every school student who takes action against the climate crisis on Friday is doing exactly that.
'They should know that they will not be punished for defending their own future. They have the Scottish Greens' support and I hope they will have the support of their teachers and education authorities.'
Anna Taylor, of UK Student Climate Network, said: 'We're running out of time for meaningful change, and that's why we're seeing young people around the world rising up to hold their governments to account on their dismal climate records.
The movement has been inspired by Greta Thunberg (pictured in Davos on January 25), who protests every Friday outside Sweden's parliament to urge leaders to tackle climate change
Students protest against climate change at a strike in Lausanne, Switzerland, on January 18
Speaking from Stockholm, climate activist Greta told ITV's Good Morning Britain that once people 'fully understand the meaning of the climate crisis, you can't un-understand it'
'Unless we take positive action, the future's looking bleak for those of us that have grown up in an era defined by climate change.'
Energy minister Claire Perry told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I suspect if this was happening 40 years ago, I would be out there too.
Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, whose daughter Ella died in February 2013 (file picture)
The mother of a nine-year-old girl whose death has been linked to unlawful air pollution has spoken to the young protesters in Parliament Square.
Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, whose daughter Ella died in February 2013, received a chorus of cheers and chants of 'justice for Ella' after addressing the group.
Ms Kissi-Debrah said she felt very emotional after speaking on the sixth anniversary of her daughter's death.
She added: 'It has been a very hard day but I had to talk to them so they got what today was all about. It's not about skipping school. Climate change needs to be part of the national curriculum.'
'I'm incredibly proud of the young people in the UK who are highly educated about this issue and feel very strongly - quite rightly - that we do need to take action because it's their generation that will bear the consequences.
'I do want to slightly caution that with the more official view that we can't put any more burdens on our superb teachers and teaching staff. I do hope that anyone missing school today does get their work and their homework done.'
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said it supports the right of young people to express themselves but it did not condone students being out of the classroom to take action.
In a statement, the NAHT said: 'While a school leader's role is to ensure children attend school, are kept safe and receive a good quality of education, it is right that individual school leaders can decide how best to respond to any proposed protest by students in their school on Friday.'
Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres voiced her support for the cause, saying the action was 'moving'.
She said: 'It's time to heed the deeply moving voice of youth and schoolchildren, who are so worried about their future that they need to strike to make us pay attention. It is a sign that we are failing in our responsibility to protect them from the worsening impacts of climate change.'
John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: 'Young people know that their lives are going to be changed dramatically by the impacts of climate change.
'The risks that older people hope they might dodge are the problems the young will inherit. And the longer the young wait for action to be taken, the harder it will be for them in future.'
Youth Strike 4 Climate organisers say strikes are taking place in 60 towns and cities from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands
However, the strikes were not welcomed by school leaders and Mr Hinds, who said missing class was not the answer. He said: 'I want young people to be engaged in key issues affecting them and involving themselves in causes they care about.
'But let me be clear, missing class won't do a thing to help the environment; all they will do is create extra work for teachers.'
Mr Hinds said: 'I want young people to be engaged in key issues affecting them and involving themselves in causes they care about. But let me be clear, missing class won't do a thing to help the environment; all they will do is create extra work for teachers.'
He added it was ultimately a matter for headteachers, but he did not want teachers being burdened with the extra workload the strikes could create.
London mayor Sadiq Khan, speaking at the National Clean Air Summit at the Tate Modern yesterday, said he understands why children feel 'very strongly' about pollution and climate change and called for politicians to take 'great strides to clear up the air across our country'.
He said: 'I say to my fellow politicians, we can be the first generation to get it and find solutions, or the last generation not to get it.'
The strike is being supported by environmental campaign groups and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, who addressed students on their walkout in Brighton.
Ms Lucas, who described the action as 'inspiring', said: 'Our children recognise that this is a climate emergency. They are striking this week because they know we cannot carry on as normal.
'Teachers work hard to prepare students for their future but right now that future is at serious risk.'
Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman and former teacher Layla Moran also backed the young people who have 'taken up such an important and principled cause' and said she would be joining students in Oxford.
Speaking from Stockholm today, Greta told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I think that the first time I heard about climate change when I was eight or nine years old.
'It was when my teachers told me there's something called climate change and it's caused by humans. They showed us films and pictures, and I just thought it was very worrying, I was very scared of it.
'I thought that it was very strange that there was such an existential threat that would threaten our very existence and our civilisation and yet that wasn't our first priority and we weren't talking about it that much.
'So I became interested in it, and I started reading about it – like books and movies and articles – and the more I read about it, the more I understand.
'Once you fully understand the meaning of the climate crisis you can't un-understand it – then you have to do something about it.'
Meanwhile Richard Baker, chief executive of extreme-scale data intelligence firm GeoSpock, said: 'It's inspiring to see some of our youngest citizens taking action on climate change, but it shouldn't have to take school strikes for governments and policymakers to act on this public health crisis.'
Students and young people are set to follow up on February's action with a second round of strikes taking place on March 15 as part of a global youth strike.
By JANE FRYER FOR THE DAILY MAIL
At precisely 11am today, thousands of children from schools in more than 60 towns and cities across Britain will get up from their desks, pick up their bags and march out of their classrooms.
Not because they're bored, or playing truant, or want an early start to half-term or even just fancy a breather from fractions and French lessons.
No, these kids, many as young as nine, will be taking part in a mass protest over climate change — a warm-up for a global school strike on March 15.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg attend a session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
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Greta's mother is Swedish opera singer Malena Ernman. She is seen performing during the Eurovision grand final in Moscow on May 16
A good number of them have been inspired by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old pig-tailed Swedish schoolgirl who has been obsessively researching climate change for seven years and who, since last summer, has been skipping school every Friday to sit on the steps of the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, with a home-made sign that reads 'Skolstrejk för Klimatet' (School strike for the climate).
She grows her own vegetables, refuses air travel and luxury hotels — even if the only option is a 32-hour train journey and a tent — and with her round face and simple clothes, looks even younger than she is.
Greta also struck the fear of God into attendees at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland in December 2018, accusing them of leaving the burden of climate change with future generations.
'I don't want your hope. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day,' she told them firmly in her clear, calm, barely accented English.
She gave business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month both barrels, too — 'our house is on fire!' she said, and looked IMF Chairwoman Christine Lagarde very hard in the eye as they shook hands.
How brilliant! Regardless of what you think about climate change, for once we have a proper role model who practises what she preaches with dedication and courage.
And, of course, had every child that's going 'on strike' today, as part of the so-called 'Fridays for Future' movement, been inspired and mobilised by Greta, then teachers, heads, parents and politicians alike would probably be more relaxed about them bunking off school to join her protest.
But sadly, Greta's campaign has been hijacked by a band of opportunistic militant anti-Tory career activists who are co-ordinating the walkouts and drumming up support among children on social media in an effort to further their own hard-line agenda, not just on green issues, but also promoting civil disobedience.
Greta Thunberg was born on 3 January 2003. Her father is actor Svante Thunberg, - here with her sister Beata. She is pictured with her other family members
They include in their hoary ranks Roger Hallam, 52, founder of Extinction Rebellion, whose roadblocks bought parts of London to a standstill in November; Janine O'Keeffe, an academic who specialises in 'empowerment struggles'; Jake Woodier, a former vegan cafe owner; and Robert Possnett, a 57-year-old ex-paratrooper and fanatical Remainer.
Little wonder Education Secretary Damian Hinds said yesterday that skipping school 'won't do a thing to help the environment', while teaching leaders say parents will face £60 fines if their children walk out.
So what inspired the girl who's sparked such a remarkable situation?
When Greta was 11, she became depressed and stopped talking and eating.
In December, she described herself as having been 'diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, OCD and selective mutism — 'I only speak when I have something important to say' — and insists her autism helps her concentrate. 'I see the world a bit differently, from another perspective… I can do the same thing for hours.' She comes from an eminent family.
Her mother is the beautiful blonde Swedish opera singer Malena Ernman who was the country's entry in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
Her father is actor Svante Thunberg, who was named after a distant relative, Svante Arrhenius, the Nobel-prize-winning scientist who in 1896 first calculated the greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide emissions.
(While much of his work has stood the test of time, he did predict that it would take another 2,000 years for us to reach today's levels of warming.)
Greta's own crusade began when she was nine years old and learned about climate change at school in Sweden — a nation which prides itself on its progressive approach to climate control.
'They were always talking about how we should turn off lights, save water, not throw out food,' she said in one interview.
Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old pig-tailed Swedish schoolgirl, has been obsessively researching climate change for seven years
But she couldn't get her head around the fact that there were potential solutions available, but no action. 'If humans could really change the climate, everyone would be talking about it and people wouldn't be talking about anything else,' she said. 'But this wasn't happening.'
So she started researching climate change herself, and found she couldn't stop. She became a vegan, stopped buying anything that was not essential and refused to fly anywhere.
Her research was so time-consuming she was forced to give up her hobbies — theatre, singing, dancing, music, horse-riding — but she didn't care.
'You have to see the bigger perspective,' she insisted.
Then she began working on her parents. 'Some people claim my parents have brainwashed me, but it was the opposite: I brainwashed my parents,' she said. They quickly fell into line.
By 2016, her mother had given up flying — putting an end to her international performing career. The family gave up meat and dairy because of what they regard as the damaging environmental effects of raising animals, installed solar batteries, started growing their own vegetables, went vegan and cycled everywhere, keeping an electric car for emergencies.
But Greta was only just starting.In August last year, her private personal protest went public when she walked out of school and plonked herself outside the Riksdag. Her demands were simple — that politicians reduced carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement of 2015.
(Her protest chimed with a country struck by heatwaves and wildfires in the hottest summer since records began 262 years before.) And her homemade leaflets, handed out in the shadow of the Riksdag, were to the point: 'I'm doing this because you adults are sh****ng on my future,' they read. She was moved on several times by police, and was reprimanded at home by her parents.
But she sat there, alone, for three weeks during school hours, school books in her lap, until after the Swedish general election on September 9, and has been there pretty much every Friday since, in rain, sleet, snow and hail.
In November 2018, still aged just 15 and dressed in a blue hoodie and hair in long plaits she gave her first TED talk (the series of talks given by eminent speakers online for a global audience). It has had nearly a million views.
Soon her word was spreading across the world.
Tens of thousands of Belgian children have played truant from school to march on the streets of Brussels, Namur, Leuven and Liege, inspired by Greta's simple message. At the World Economic Forum convention in Davos last month, she camped in the snow in temperatures of -18C rather than accept luxury hotel accommodation — and that after enduring a 32-hour train journey with her long-suffering dad.
'I want to practise what I preach,' she said, in one simple sentence shaming her fellow Davos eco-campaigners, who descended on the Swiss resort in more than 1,500 private jets and helicopters.
Students gather to demand the government take action on climate change at Martin Place on November 30 last year
Greta holds a placard next to students during a 'strike for climate' held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum
And despite looking more like Pippi Longstocking than a global climate activist, she wasn't remotely fazed either by her fellow panellists (who included Bono, primatologist Jane Goodall and singer Will.i.am), or her audience of some of the world's richest and most powerful people.
'Someone is to blame,' she said. 'Some people. Some companies, some decision-makers in particular have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money,' she said. 'And I think many of you here today belong to that group.'
Unlike so many politically motivated campaigners, Greta has never wavered.
'I am doing this because nobody else is doing anything; it is my moral responsibility to do what I can,' she said.
Today, of course, she is no longer protesting alone, sitting bravely in the snow, clasping that damp banner to her chest.
No wonder so many kids were inspired by her. And no wonder school strikes have also been held in Germany, Switzerland, Australia and even Uganda.
But what a shame that her cause has been embraced, piggybacked, hijacked even, by a worrying number of militant activists in this country, desperate to politicise her campaign for their own selfish ends.
By JANET STREET-PORTER FOR MAILONLINE
A strike is a weapon of last resort.
Workers who withdraw their labour know they will be out of pocket, and their actions can thoroughly inconvenience people who have nothing to do with any dispute.
Strikes cause resentment and anger, but there's always the hope that taking such a drastic step will rally support for poor working conditions, unfair pay and unfair dismissals and bring about change for the better.
Those were the rules up to the summer of 2018.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg takes part in the 'School Strike for Climate' at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 25
Now, a series of so-called Youth Strikes by school students in Australia, all over Europe and in the UK this Friday signal that young people are thinking and behaving like adult workers on a wage.
The kids say their strikes are justified because our elected leaders are failing to deal with the devastating effects of climate change, and supporters claim that teenagers are the 'true grown ups' while adults are behaving 'like spoiled and dangerous children'.
The Strike 4 Climate Action campaign was started by a remarkable young Swedish woman, Greta Thunberg, who has Aspergers.
Since August 2018, she has refused to attend school on Fridays, staging a weekly protest outside the Swedish Parliament building. In January, Greta was invited to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Patronising journalists wondered if she had 'help' with her speech because it was so articulate, and asked who was 'behind' her one woman campaign.
The young woman replied: 'I am behind Greta. I have brainwashed my parents. I convinced them not to fly any more and to stop eating meat'.
Students protest for climate action during a school strike in Magdeburg, Germany, last Friday
Now, Greta's campaign has gone global and one of her fans, 13 year-old Alexandria Villasenor from New York, is planning a day of direct action across the US on March 15th.
Using the hashtag FridaysForFuture, thousands of teenagers around the world have been walking out of school and staging marches in city centres.
They've protested in Brussels and Berlin, Switzerland and Sweden. In Australia last November, thousands marched in Sydney, Melbourne and 20 major cities. Reaction from politicians was pitiful, to say the least.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged them to be 'less activist', and one minister moaned that kids should be in the classroom 'learning about mining and science - because that's what we're good at…..all you learn from a protest is how to join a dole queue'.
They're both terribly wrong. I joined the Tories and then the Young Socialists in my teens, and went on protest marches again apartheid, nuclear weapons and the war in Vietnam.
I shouted abuse at police, waved my placards and chanted for world peace. I don't know what difference my voice made, but it was something I could not ignore.
Last month, Greta was invited to speak in Davos, and told journalists: 'I am behind Greta. I have brainwashed my parents. I convinced them not to fly any more and to stop eating meat'
Protest marches are the only way that ordinary people can make their voices heard, when most politicians have been privately educated, attended a small group of elite universities, studied the same subjects, worked in law or economics, and all belong to the same clubs.
Learning how to protest teaches you resourcefulness, wit and determination.
But should we be impressed by the actions of teenagers taking to the streets instead of sitting in classrooms learning stuff that might secure them a better job and a chance to be in power themselves one day?
It's easy to be cynical and see the appeal of bunking off school once a week.
Given the perfect excuse for a Friday loafing around a town centre or hanging out in a park, what teenager would refuse to join a protest movement? Particularly one that so many adults agree with.
In Australia, one striking student said 'when kids make a mess adults tell us to clean it up. When our leaders make a mess, they're leaving it for us to clean up'.
In Australia, climate change is top of the agenda after months of extreme weather. During my visit last month there was flash flooding, serious bushfires, extreme heat and torrential rain. There is a huge reliance on coal and a reluctance to harness solar and wind power.
A country with a giant desert in the middle is determined to dig up every last seam of coal, come what may, in order to placate the powerful mining interests and the unions. Natural wonders, like the Great Barrier Reef, are devastated and dying.
There's no dispute that adults have failed to deal with climate change, pandering to vested interests and big business every time.
Australian students gather in Sydney to demand climate change action last November
But the way to bring about change is by infiltrating democracy from within, by becoming a powerful voice, a politician and a leader.
Some teacher's unions have said that the strikes will do pupils good and teach them a valuable experience. Others have complained that the disruption should not interrupt their education.
Information and knowledge are what give you power- so maybe schools should harness all this enthusiasm for saving the planet and devise imaginative projects and initiatives which inform as well as educate their pupils.
Responding with the threat of detentions will achieve nothing either.
One middle class female commentator says she applauds the young strikers because they are 'talking more sense than our MPs'. That might be the case, but working class parents will have a different view. Poverty forced both my parents to end their education at 14.
They scrimped and saved for my school uniform and were so proud that I attended grammar school - they would have been outraged if I had walked out of a single lesson.
To them, passing exams and academic achievement was my only way out of dead end jobs and low wages.
They never complained about me attending marches as long as my political escapades happened in my free time, on the weekend.
I'm thrilled the younger generation are so idealistic and committed to a better future for us all (just like I was).
I'd just be more impressed if they gave up their Saturday morning lie-ins to fight for their cause.
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