Thousands of French activists have taken to the streets of Paris calling for immediate action on climate change. The protesters are demanding that governments take necessary action to avert an environmental catastrophe and curb the harmful effects of manmade climate change.
Activists are holding banners reading "Our future on your shoulders", "Our oceans are rising, so are we", "System change, not climate change", "Act now or swim later", "Our Earth is flooding", and others.
The largest demonstrations are being held in the United States, Australia, and Europe.
The strike comes ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit 2019, which will start in New York on 23 September.
World leaders are expected to present concrete plans to enhance their national strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent over the next 10 years and to reach net zero emissions by 2050 at the world body.
According to scientists, global warming generated by heat-trapping greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels has already resulted in droughts and heatwaves, and led to melting glaciers, sea levels rising, and floods.
A major international agreement on climate, the Paris Agreement, was signed in the French capital in 2015. The accord, created within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, aims to keep the increase in the average global temperature at below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
