Participants want to see real, immediate action to reverse the global environmental crisis
Students wanted to increase awareness of the climate crisis the world faces. The students who took part at the School March for Climate Action this Sunday in Hong Kong say they want to see real action from the government.
More than 200 people took part in the city’s second School March for Climate Action. There were, according to the police, 250 people at its peak. The student-led march was hosted by School Strike Hong Kong for Climate Action, and is part of the global Fridays For Future movement started by 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist, Greta Thunberg.
According to Ewan Windebank, one of the student leaders, this time the group didn’t hand in a proposal to the government like they did at the end of their first strike in March. What they wanted was to increase awareness and arouse public interest so that the government would listen to them.
One of the student speakers who delivered a speech after the march, Lai Tin-long, said there were many areas in which the government was not doing enough.
He said if the government really wanted to take climate action, it would have passed a bill on municipal waste charging years ago.
He suggested the government should offer financial help to recycling companies so that they could upgrade how they process recyclable waste.
Another student speaker at the march, Kaitlyn Kuang Kit-ying, 14, also wants to see more resources being allocated to improving environmental protection.
“The latest government budget plan allocated a small amount of resources towards it. All they’ve done is increase the number of parking spaces with charging slots for electric vehicles. I don’t think it’s doing enough,” said the Diocesan Girls School student.
“[I want] the government to do something for us citizens. We’re the future of society.”