More Than 30 Thousand Students in Belgium Are Protesting Over Climate Change

Thousands of Belgian students took to the streets in the name of climate change.

Despite being in the middle of winter, thousands of students in Belgium are skipping school for the third time this month and descending on the country's capital, Brussels.

They're doing it in the name of climate change and are demanding that their government does more to tackle the increasing effects of climate change on the environment.

While the Belgium government adopted an adaptation strategy back in 2010, like many other countries, its impact on curbing environmental change has been minimal.

The United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report late last year explaining that there will be an exponentially heightened risk of poverty and natural disasters if we don't halt the increase to 1.5 degrees Celcius above pre-industrial global temperatures within the next 12 years.

In response to this, students around Australia skipped school for the day to push the government into taking more action over climate change. 

The Sydney rally organiser, 14-year-old Jean Hinchliffe, told us that this wasn't going to be a one-off event.

"Some students have already been organising strikes early next year," she said.

"We're definitely not stopping here; there's a lot to organise from here."

Watch our footage of the Sydney protest below.

Header Image: iStock.com/JannHuizenga