Fridays for Future

Description

Fridays for Future is a youth-led, youth-organised global climate strike movement.

It began in August 2018 when Swedish student Greta Thunberg sat outside the Swedish parliament to demand action on the climate crisis. The hashtag and idea spread quickly, and students around the world began skipping school on Fridays to protest. The movement has since organised repeated global strikes, drawing millions of participants across well over 100 countries.

Its goal is to put moral pressure on policymakers to listen to climate scientists and take forceful action to limit global warming. The movement says it is independent of commercial interests and political parties and knows no borders. It works mainly through school strikes, public demonstrations, digital campaigns and open letters aimed at governments and international bodies.

Local and national groups organise their own actions while sharing the same demands and identity. Everyone is described as welcome to take part, and the movement presents itself as a continuing, grassroots effort rather than a formal institution.