Giving Compass' Take:

• This story from Eco-Business highlights youth-led climate change protests being conducted all over the world.

• How might climate advocates and environmental organizations capitalize on this movement?

• To learn more about young leaders demanding global climate action, click here.

As thousands of students across Britain traded their pencils for protest signs on Friday, calling for governments to step up action on climate change, young people said they wanted a bigger say in decisions that would shape their future.

Cyrus Jarvis, 15, a London-based organiser for the UK Student Climate Network, one of the groups leading the movement in Britain, said its demands included lowering the legal voting age to 16 from 18.

“We want a voice when it comes to making decisions, versus the older generations—who just don’t care—making decisions for us,” he said. “For climate action, we don’t think the government is doing enough.”

Another key ask was for climate change education to be added to the school curriculum, he said.

“We need to do something now. If we don’t, we don’t have a future,” he added.

Under the leadership of Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old from Sweden who has largely been credited with sparking the youth movement—and has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts—students in Europe and Australia have been protesting in favour of climate action for months.

But Friday marked the first time that students in more than 100 countries around the world united in a coordinated action.

The global strike came on the heels of a new UN study warning that devastating temperature rise in the Arctic may now be inevitable.

Read the full article about the climate change protests at Eco-Business