Fridays for Future (FFF), also known as the School Strike for Climate (Swedish: Skolstrejk för klimatet [ˈskûːlstrɛjk fœr klɪˈmɑ̌ːtɛt]), is a worldwide group of students who skip Friday classes to join protests. These protests ask political leaders to take action against climate change and urge the fossil fuel industry to switch to renewable energy. The movement gained attention after a Swedish student named Greta Thunberg held a protest outside the Swedish parliament, Riksdag, in August 2018. She carried a sign that said "Skolstrejk för klimatet" ("School strike for the climate").
A global protest on March 15, 2019, had more than one million participants in 2,200 events across 125 countries. On May 24, 2019, during the second global strike, 1,600 protests took place in 150 countries, drawing hundreds of thousands of people. These protests happened at the same time as the 2019 European Parliament election.
The 2019 Global Week for Future included 4,500 strikes in over 150 countries, centered on Fridays, September 20 and 27. These events are likely the largest climate protests in history. On September 20, about 4 million people joined, with many being students, including 1.4 million in Germany. On September 27, an estimated two million people participated worldwide, with over one million in Italy and several hundred thousand in Canada.
Earlier school climate strikes
In November 2006, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition was created to plan climate change activities involving young people and students. In 2010, students in England walked out of school to protest climate change, connected to a Climate Camp. In late November 2015, a group of students asked students worldwide to miss school on the first day of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. On November 30, the first day of the conference, a "Climate strike" took place in more than 100 countries; more than 50,000 people joined. The movement focused on three goals: using 100% clean energy, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, and supporting people displaced by climate change.
Greta Thunberg and beginnings, 2018
On August 20, 2018, Greta Thunberg, a ninth-grade student in Sweden, decided not to attend school until the Sweden general election on September 9, 2018. This decision followed heat waves and wildfires in Sweden. She said she was inspired by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, who organized the March for Our Lives. Thunberg protested by sitting outside the Riksdag (Sweden’s parliament) every day during school hours with a sign that read "Skolstrejk för klimatet" ("school strike for climate"). She asked the Swedish government to reduce carbon emissions as required by the Paris Agreement. On September 7, just before the election, she announced she would continue to strike every Friday until Sweden met the goals of the Paris Agreement. She created the slogan "Fridays for Future," which became well-known worldwide and encouraged students around the world to join climate strikes.
Climate strikes began to happen in many places around the world, inspired by Thunberg. The first strike with more than one person took place in September in The Hague, outside the Dutch parliament, led by Sandor van Gessel, Anne-Laure Stroek, Ianthe Minnaert, and Ellis van der Borgh. Soon after, thousands of students in Australia began striking on Fridays, even though Prime Minister Scott Morrison asked for more learning in schools and less activism. The COP24 Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland, encouraged more strikes. In December, climate strikes happened in at least 270 cities in countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Growing movement, 2019
In 2019, strikes happened again in the countries mentioned earlier and in other countries, such as Colombia, New Zealand, and Uganda. Large strikes took place on January 17 and 18, 2019, when at least 45,000 students protested in Switzerland and Germany alone. They were protesting because they believed the governments were not doing enough to address global warming. In several countries, including Germany and the UK, students asked for changes to laws so that people aged 16 could vote in elections and help shape policies for the future.
In August 2019, Thunberg traveled to New York City on a two-week sailboat trip to continue raising awareness about the need to solve the climate crisis. She joined school strikes planned in the United States on September 20, 2019, and later spoke at the UN Climate Summit in New York City on September 23, 2019.
In Germany, groups organized themselves using WhatsApp to communicate and shared messages through flyers and social media. By February 2019, the movement had counted more than 155 local groups. In the United States, organizers worked on a state-by-state basis, using Slack to communicate and spreading messages through flyers and social media. By February 2019, the movement had counted more than 134 groups. Organizations such as Sunrise Movement, 350.org, OneMillionOfUs, Earth Uprising, Future Coalition, Earth Guardians, Zero Hour, and Extinction Rebellion helped coordinate these efforts.
In Belgium, the environment minister for Flanders, Joke Schauvliege, resigned on February 5, 2019, after falsely claiming that the state security agency had proof that the school strikes in Belgium were a "set-up."
In the United Kingdom, on February 13, 2019, 224 academics signed an open letter supporting the students participating in the School Strike for Climate action. On February 15, more than 60 actions took place in towns and cities across the UK, with about 15,000 people participating.
Climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research spoke at a Fridays for Future climate strike in Potsdam, Germany, on the same day. On February 21, 2019, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, announced plans to spend hundreds of billions of euros on climate change solutions, which would make up a fourth of the EU budget. He made this announcement during a speech next to Greta Thunberg, and media reported that the school-strike movement influenced this decision.
On March 5, 2019, 700 German-speaking researchers signed a statement supporting the school strikes in Germany. More than 26,800 scientists from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland later joined this statement.
On May 9, 2019, during a European Union summit in Sibiu, representatives from the movement met with leaders from European countries and handed them an open letter signed by over 16,000 climate strikers and their supporters.
On March 15, 2019, a series of school strikes took place worldwide, urging adults to take responsibility for stopping climate change. More than a million people participated in about 2,200 events across 125 countries.
On March 1, 2019, 150 students from the global coordination group of the youth-led climate strike, including Thunberg, published an open letter in The Guardian.
In Scotland, city councils in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Highland, and Fife allowed children to attend the strikes. In Finland, schools sent parental consent letters, and in Turku, the school board stated that children had a constitutional right to join the strikes.
On March 15, 2019, a guest editorial in The Guardian titled "Think we should be at school? Today's climate strike is the biggest lesson of all" was published. Students like Thunberg, Anna Taylor, Luisa Neubauer, Kyra Gantois, Anuna De Wever, Adélaïde Charlier, Holly Gillibrand, and Alexandria Villaseñor explained why they were striking.
In Germany, more than 300,000 students demonstrated in 230 cities, with over 25,000 in Berlin alone. These students were supported by a new group called Parents for Future. In Italy, more than 200,000 students participated, with 100,000 in Milan. In Montreal, more than 150,000 people attended, while in Stockholm, 15,000 to 20,000 people joined. Other cities included Paris, London, Washington, Reykjavík, Oslo, Helsinki, Copenhagen, and Tokyo. In Antarctica, at least seven scientists held a rally at the Neumayer Station III of the Alfred Wegener Institute.
In New Zealand, the strikes were interrupted by the Christchurch mosque shootings on the same day. The strike in Christchurch was canceled for safety reasons, but students in other parts of New Zealand continued. Some students learned about the shootings only when they watched the evening news.
Events included:
– School Strike for Climate in front of the Parliament House, Helsinki, March 15, 2019
– "Fridays for Future" in Toronto, March 15, 2019
– School strike in San Francisco, March 15, 2019
– School strike in Cleveland, March 15, 2019
– School strike for climate in Wellington, March 15, 2019
– A speech delivered from the stairs of the Jardin Darcy in Dijon, France, for the global climate strike on March 15, 2019
A second wave of global climate strikes began in New Zealand and Australia on May 24, 2019. Hundreds of thousands of students participated in more than 1,600 cities across at least 125 countries. Thunberg, one of the organizers, said the strike happened on the second day of the four-day 2019 European Parliament election to influence voters. Polls at the time showed that climate change
Later events, 2020s
On September 25, 2020, a global climate strike occurred. Strikes were planned in thousands of places around the world.
On March 19, 2021, another global climate strike took place. Protests happened in hundreds of locations worldwide. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, fewer people attended in-person events compared to previous years.
On June 15, 2021, the Auckland chapter of New Zealand’s School Strike 4 Climate movement officially ended. The group stated it had been racist toward BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) and would no longer organize strikes. Instead, it promised to support BIPOC-led climate justice efforts. The ending of the Auckland chapter received different reactions. Mary Moeono-Kolio, a leader of 350 Pacific Climate Warriors, and Sophie Hanford, founder of School Strike, said racism has no place in the climate movement and called for Indigenous leadership. Anevili, a spokesperson for Te Ara Whatu, supported the decision as a way to address racism but worried activists of color might be unfairly blamed for the chapter’s ending.
On September 24, 2021, strikes were planned in over 1,400 locations worldwide. Events took place in more than 90 countries, with large demonstrations in Europe, America, and Africa. Some of the biggest protests were in Germany. Greta Thunberg spoke to more than 100,000 people in Berlin and said, “No political party is doing enough.”
On March 25, 2022, a global climate strike occurred.
On September 23, 2022, another global climate strike took place. More than 30,000 people participated in Berlin.
On March 3, 2023, a global climate strike happened. In Germany, strikes were planned in over 240 locations, including Berlin, where more than 18,000 people attended. According to FFF Germany, over 220,000 people protested against German climate policies, especially in the transportation sector.
In New Zealand, climate strikes were held in several cities and towns, including Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Napier, New Plymouth, and Palmerston North.
Digital climate strike
The online climate strike movement, also known as the "digital strike," was started in April 2019 by two Asian-American activists, Iris Zhan from Howard County, Maryland, United States, and George Zhang from Los Angeles, California. This movement was created to allow people who cannot participate in physical strikes to take part in climate activism online. In March 2020, after the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Greta Thunberg encouraged participants to stay home, hold signs, and share photos of themselves online instead of gathering in public places. The movement became very popular during the pandemic because many large gatherings were restricted, and it gained attention from groups like Greenpeace and Amnesty International.
Since its start, the Fridays for Future Digital movement has worked on several campaigns to raise awareness about climate justice issues. These efforts include promoting climate change education in schools and supporting indigenous activists who face harm from harmful government policies.
Scientific background
Human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, release large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These gases trap heat, a process called the greenhouse effect, which warms the Earth's climate. In the past, the greenhouse effect helped keep the Earth from being covered in ice forever by releasing carbon dioxide from volcanic eruptions and tiny living things. However, since the start of the industrial era, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air has increased, causing more harmful global warming and climate change. The only ways carbon dioxide is removed from the air are through geological processes, like weathering and forming rocks that trap carbon, which take hundreds of thousands of years, and through plants absorbing carbon. If plants burn or rot without being replaced, the carbon is released again over centuries.
People in powerful positions, such as fossil fuel companies and governments, are responsible for most carbon dioxide emissions. They are not taking enough action to reduce these emissions. In 2019, a statement signed by over 12,000 scientists said that young people's concerns about climate change are supported by the best available science.
On January 31, 2019, more than 3,400 scientists and academics in Belgium signed an open letter supporting school strikes. The letter stated that climate science confirms the students' actions are correct. Similar letters were signed by scientists in the Netherlands and Finland. An article in the journal Nature in March 2019 noted that scientists widely supported the strikes and described them as a meaningful form of peaceful protest.
In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, scientists formed a group called Scientists for Future (S4F) to support the accuracy of the movement's claims. Over 26,000 scientists and scholars signed the group's statement.
On March 14, 2019, the Club of Rome, an international organization, released a statement supporting Greta Thunberg and the climate strikes. It urged governments worldwide to act and reduce carbon emissions.
In early April 2019, a letter titled "Concerns of young protesters are justified" was published in the journal Science. The letter, signed by over 3,000 scientists, stated that the students' concerns are supported by the best available science.
In June 2019, more than 1,000 healthcare professionals, including professors and public health leaders, called for peaceful protests in response to government policies they called "woefully inadequate." They urged leaders and media to recognize the urgency of the ecological crisis and support the school strikes and the group Extinction Rebellion.
On October 14, 2020, Fridays For Future Germany released a report from the Wuppertal Institute. The report used scenario analysis to show a realistic path for Germany to become carbon neutral by 2035.
Fridays For Future International created an appeal supported by Scientist Rebellion and 61 scientists, including Michael Meeropol and Stefan Sommer. The appeal connects peace, justice, and climate action. It argues that solving the ecological crisis requires ending overconsumption, which cannot happen while wars continue because economic growth funds military power. Since climate change affects everyone, the appeal promotes peace and justice as shared goals. Twenty-four organizations and activists, such as Tori Tsui and Betsy Rosenberg, supported the appeal.
Reactions by schools, politicians, and parents
Adults in positions of power have both praised and criticized the strikes. In the European Union, the movement received strong support from the pan-European party Volt Europa. According to a report by Parents for Future before the European Elections in 2019, Volt Europa agreed with all the demands made by Fridays for Future in April 2019.
In the United Kingdom and Australia, some conservative politicians called the strikes truancy. In the UK, some students were punished or arrested for participating in the strikes or demonstrations. Former Prime Minister Theresa May said the strikes wasted time that could be used for lessons and teaching. Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition, and Sir Vincent Cable, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, supported the strikes, as did leaders of other UK parties. UK energy minister Claire Perry said she would have joined the strikes when she was younger. David Reed, director of the charity Generation Change, stated that "school leaders seem to have missed the point of efforts over the past decade to raise education standards. For what does excellence in education look like if it's not pupils being engaged enough on issues such as climate change to do something about them?"
In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for "more learning and less activism" after the strikes. Australia's Education Minister Dan Tehan said students who believe an issue is important should take action after school or on weekends.
In New Zealand, responses from politicians, community leaders, and schools were mixed. Some principals threatened to mark students as truant for attending the strike without their parents' or school's permission. Judith Collins and other Members of Parliament dismissed the impact of the strikes, while Climate Change Minister James Shaw supported them, noting that few people would pay attention to marchers protesting on weekends.
On 15 March 2019, UN Secretary-General António Guterres supported the strikers, stating, "My generation has failed to respond properly to the dramatic challenge of climate change. This is deeply felt by young people. No wonder they are angry." Guterres invited world leaders to a UN summit in September 2019 to discuss "concrete realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020."
Many parents, including public figures, supported the children's climate strikes. A spokesperson for the "Our Kids' Climate" organization said, "An adult's presence can help keep strikers safe," and "suggests bringing a sign that will resonate with other parents, for example a sign that says 'I'm a concerned mom.'" Moms Clean Air Force recommends contacting school officials, providing snacks for the children, and standing with signs in solidarity.
The Elders Climate Action organization created T-shirts featuring a grandparent hand in hand with a child, and seeks to mobilize "grandparents, great aunts, and great uncles… while there is still time to protect the well-being of our grandchildren."
The term "climate strike" was named Collins Dictionary's 2019 word of the year. Collins lexicographers noted a 100 times increase in the use of the term in 2019, the largest increase of any word on their list.
Censorship
In July 2020, the Government of India blocked the website of a group called Fridays for Future in India. The group was organizing a campaign to stop a new EIA Draft that the government proposed, which caused disagreement among many people.
Awards
On June 7, 2019, Fridays for Future and Greta Thunberg were given Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award. Secretary General Kumi Naidoo said: