By Ivana Kottasová and Rob Picheta, CNN
Young climate activists flocked to Glasgow and surrounded the site of the COP26 summit to call for action from world leaders as the occasion focuses on the effect of climate change on long-term generations.
Thousands of protesters covered the streets of the Scottish city on Friday, with many signs warning about the effects of rising temperatures and excessive weather events.
Young Filipino climate advocate Jan Karmel Guillermo told the crowd that the summit is a “pivotal moment” in the climate crisis.
Eighteen-year-old activist Greta Thunberg will take on protesters later, more than 3 years after she founded the “Fridays for Future” school strike motion that spurred youth action against climate change.
Crowds chanted “We are unstoppable, some other global is possible” and other slogans as they tried to draw attention near the site. A giant contingent of police surrounded the crowd as the morning grew.
Daisy Deakin, a 7-year-old girl from Glasgow accompanied by her mother Isabel, said she wanted to come to the protest to see Thunberg.
“She’s saving the world from climate change,” he told CNN, while pointing to a “Save our planet” signal.
“Our parents will die of old age. Our young people will die from climate change,” warned a banner carried by Maia Runciman, 22, of Texas and now living in Glasgow.
“I’m here to pressure world leaders to put [climate] policies in place and global ones for the future,” he said.
During the event, young weather leaders from around the world presented the World Youth Declaration to high-level delegates, enjoying the opportunity to lead young people to the high-level summit.
Other young people have been “traditionally completely excluded from global climate negotiations,” Guillermo said.
But on Friday, other young people were also in the middle of the summit. The theme of the fifth day of the occasion “Empowering Youth and the Public”, with leaders looking to attract a younger audience around the world as negotiations continued.
“I communicate with other people who are frustrated all the time, and I myself am one of the frustrated,” U. S. weather envoy John Kerry said in reaction to the protests abroad.
Leaders have so far announced a series of climate commitments at the conference, adding a commitment opposed to deforestation, a coal deal and a plan to avoid making a public finance investment in fossil fuel projects abroad.
But many young activists are calling for more radical commitments, as the United Nations warns that the world is adapting temporarily enough to the climate crisis.
Cordelia Murray-Brown, 14, told CNN she missed school to attend the protest and criticized world leaders for flying to the top. “It’s smart for the leaders to be here, but it opposes the goal as they all flew to come here. . . I think there are now enough people to listen. I think they make promises that they know they can’t keep.
“I’m frustrated. Just let them do what they say they would do,” added Prudence Stamp, 18.
Thunberg’s speech on Friday comes after a week in which he assaulted through supporters and members of the media.
On Monday, the activist joined other “Fridays for Future” activists at a protest in Glasgow’s Festival Park, near the UN weather summit, where she mocked politicians for their climate.
He said the politicians and delegates amassed at the COP talks “intended to take our long term seriously. “
“Change will not come from within. It’s not leadership, it’s leadership,” Thunberg added, referring to the organization of protesters accumulated outside.
“That’s the way leadership is. We say more blah blah blah, more exploitation of people, nature and the planet. . . No more than everything they do inside,” he continued.
The-CNN-Wire ™
CNN’s Lauren Kent and Lauren Said-Moorhouse contributed to the report.
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