Thousands take to the streets of Yorkshire to support climate strike

Thousands of people took to the streets across Yorkshire yesterday as part of global climate protests which could be the largest in history.

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People from all walks of life came out in support of the Climate Strike, called by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg in response to what is being called the “climate emergency”.

Schoolchildren and students at events across big cities and small towns in the region were joined by parents, campaigners and workers to demand urgent action on tackling greenhouse gases driving rising global temperatures.

More than 1,000 people attended the strike in Leeds, where roads were closed to accommodate marchers, while protesters in Sheffield were joined by American-born comedian Rob Delaney, who was in the city preparing for his warm up show at the Leadmill.

In neighbouring Doncaster, hundreds of people were addressed by Doncaster North MP and former Labour leader Ed Miliband who said the borough and the rest of the world had a “decade to turn it around”.

This followed Doncaster Council unanimously backing a motion to declare a climate emergency in the borough.

Chris Bunce, Yorkshire Coast Greenpeace coordinator who attended the event in Beverley, told the Yorkshire Post: “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that the world can only take 11 more years of this environmental-abuse before we reach the point of no return and the world as we know it crumbles.

“Therefore this global strike is to show the leaders gathering at the UN on 23 September that serious actions need to be taken and laws implemented.

“Not only is this aimed at the top, but it is also aimed locally.”

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Mr Bunce said councils needed to acknowledge there was a climate emergency.

He added: “Because if we accept that this is 'business as usual' then there will be no more businesses left, as there will be no planet.”

The University of Sheffield used the strikes to announce it will embed teaching about sustainability across all of its courses in response to the climate emergency, while the University of Leeds withdrew its £3.6m investments into the fossil fuel industry and also backed the student climate protest.

In Whitby, rising sea levels was one of the issues that took people out into the town centre.

Rebecca Morgan, member of UK Youth Parliament for North Yorkshire, said: "We are on the coast, if sea levels rise we are going to be directly affected and we need to do what we can to stop Whitby getting lost to the sea.”

In Leeds, 34-year-old Kristina Diprose from Saltaire said she felt she had a duty to support the youth strikers.

She said: "Seeing young people actually getting out and doing something about it and taking action - I felt I had a duty to support that.”

She said politicians hadn’t done enough.

"Everyone agrees that stopping climate change is important but I don't think they really fully understand or want to understand quite how urgent it is and quite how much needs to change."

Some of the first protests were held in Australia, where an estimated 300,000 people gathered at more than 100 rallies calling for action to guard against climate change.

Demonstrations were also held across parts of Asia, South Africa and in European cities.

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Business, energy and clean growth minister Kwasi Kwarteng said he could not endorse children leaving school to take part, though he insisted "their voices are being heard" by the Government.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "It is great that young people want to highlight the climate crisis, but we have consistently said that pupils should not miss school to take part in protests and should instead talk to their teachers about activities which can take place in school."

The protests come ahead of a climate summit at the UN next week convened by secretary-general Antonio Guterres to urge countries to up their climate efforts.

Much steeper measures are needed across the globe to prevent temperature rises of more than 1.5C (2.7F) or 2C (3.6F) to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

As if to underline the urgency of the issue, the mercury is set to hit 26C (78.8F) in parts of Britain this weekend - 8C above the average for the time of year.