Some 3,000 Flemish students, “Youth for Climate”, march through the streets of Brussels calling for stronger action against climate change. The demonstration started 10.30 am at the Flemish government on Rue Royale 92 in Brussels.

Shouting “change the system, not the climate”, and other slogans, the students are catching the attention of the capital.

“What’s the point of continuing going to school, if there is no future for us,” asked one student prior to the march on the group’s Facebook page.

A call has been made for students to skip school every Thursday to protest in Brussels for better climate policy. Reacting to the call, Flemish Minister for Education, Hilde Crevits, says “it is positive that students rise up and take an interest for better climate policy, but skipping classes is not the right method. “You’re invited to come every Wednesday afternoon to the Flemish Parliament,” she continues. In other words, after school hours.

In the meantime, a major new march is planned for 27 January, which the organisers hope will mobilise similar numbers to the march on 2 December. That demonstration brought over 65,000 people to the streets of Brussels.

The new march is specifically aimed to denounce the Flemish Parliament’s refusal to sign a declaration prepared at the COP24 conference held in Poland recently, which calls for an acceleration in actions to reduce carbon pollution to combat global warming.

Maria Novak

The Brussels Times