Giving Compass' Take:

• Students around the world are protesting the lack of climate action by their governments to slow the progress of climate change. Since students are too young to vote, they are utilizing their civil liberties to take a stance. 

• What other avenues are there for encouraging political figures to take action against climate change? What role can students play in the fighting for this cause? 

• Read about how educators are struggling to teach climate change science in the UK. 

Skipping school, marching on the streets and suing governments, children who are too young to vote are demanding more action on climate change, as world leaders gather at a major UN summit in Poland this week. “We will be the main victims of climate change. It will be our generation who suffer the consequences,” said Sydney student Aisheeya Huq, 16, who skipped school on Friday to protest, along with tens of thousands of children across Australia.

The nationwide strikes were inspired by 15-year-old Stockholm student Greta Thunberg, who misses school every Friday to demonstrate outside Sweden’s parliament. She plans to do so until the country reaches its ambitious goals to curb carbon emissions.

Youth-led climate organisations and actions are springing up around the globe. Their desire for change stems from personal experience of and worry about climate change, as well as a desire to hold their governments to account, their members say.

The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement pledged countries to shift the world economy away from fossil fuels and limit the rise in global temperatures to avert more extreme weather, rising sea levels and the loss of plant and animal species.

Global leaders will meet in Poland from Dec. 2 to Dec. 14 to produce a “rule book” on how to reach these targets and implement the 2015 Paris deal agreed by nearly 200 nations.

The climate projections have prompted some young people to sue their governments. “Not taking action on something that you recognise is dangerous is a violation of our rights, because we have the right to live,” said 17-year-old student Bernadette Veilleux-Trinh, part of a group that is suing the Canadian government.

Read the full article about climate action from Thomson Reuters Foundation at Eco-Business