Belgian youth climate activists will take part in a digital global climate strike as youth campaigners seek to keep the pressure high on leaders as global attention shifts to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Global Climate Strike Online is slated for Friday 24 April and will take place via a videoconference, set to kick off at 5:00 PM.
Youth climate campaigners across the globe had already begun taking their actions digital, with local and national groups organising group calls or webinars in lieu of their trademark school walkouts.
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But the upcoming event will be the first globally coordinated effort since strikers were forced to retreat from the streets as the countries across the world went into lockdown.
In Belgium, several climate action groups will be taking part in the digital protest, a representative of the Youth for Climate (YFC) movement in Belgium confirmed.
"We are working on a global strike with Students for Climate, the Climate Coalition and Extinction Rebellion Youth," YFC spokesperson Jada Kennedy told The Brussels Times.
"The whole day will consist of online protests, live performances, webinars, workshops and video content, which will be climate-related, but not only," Kennedy said.
One of the webinars planned for the event will be given by Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a Belgian climatologist, former vice-chair of the United Nations' panel of international climate experts, the IPCC.
Ypersele's webinar will go over the ways in which the coronavirus pandemic ravaging public health across is linked to the climate and environmental crises fueling the global youth movements, a theme to which XR Belgium has already drawn attention to with a deepfake video of Belgium's prime minister.
"We are calling on citizens to join our actions," YFC figurehead, Adelaïde Charlier, told the Belga news agency. "We have to continue fighting in accordance with the lockdown measures."
"The coronavirus crisis does not mean that the climate crisis has disappeared," she added.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
