We spoke to the young people who are striking against climate change in Leeds

Hundreds of students walked out of schools, seminars, and lectures to march through Leeds City Centre yesterday, demanding changes to environmental policy and government attitudes.

The youth of Leeds made their voices heard alongside climate change protesters in over 100 countries worldwide.

Starting from Leeds Town Hall, protesters chanted and carried placards through the city centre, before arriving back at the Town Hall to protest peacefully through music and political speech.

Music lead the protests outside Leeds Town Hall

The protests, organised by grassroots campaign YouthStrike4Climate, are part of a series of global campaigns inspired by the 16 year-old Nobel Prize nominated Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Speakers at the protest included the MP for Leeds North West, Alex Sobel, and CEO of the charity Angel of Youths, Marvina Newton.

Ms Newton, who helped to organise the protest and rallied students with music and dance throughout the day, said of the protests:

"We from privileged backgrounds need to take a stand because the people that are suffering are going to be the most disadvantaged of society. They are gonna be the ones that don’t have a voice, that cannot do anything.

"The youngest speaker we had was 8. That was phenomenal. She held her ground. Her message was simple but effective; Love our planet, take care of it."

The Leeds branch have organised protests before, but say that March's turn-out has dwarfed the previous month's.

It is expected that more strikes will take place in the future. Kai Pearson, 22, an activist with YouthStrike4Climate and Extinction Rebellion, said; "This is all about sustained action, sustained strikes. This is going to happen for as long as it needs to."

Meet the students campaigning for the planet's future:

The Leeds Tab spoke to some of the people who took part to find out why they chose to march:

Isaac Crawford, 21

Isaac's tambourine punctuated the chants

"My sign is about not being a pessimist, or an optimist but being an activist.

"I don't want people to be so pessimistic about the situation that they don't get anything done, and if people are too optimistic they won't be driven to change anything"

Kai Pearson, 22

Kai Pearson brought homemade Earl Grey cupcakes for protesters and gave an impassioned speech to the crowd

"This is how people get organised. This is how we hold our governments to account. People will start to listen to the youth. Leeds has been really good about it.

"The government have declared a climate emergency, but as we know with the Kyoto Agreement, these are empty words politicians say. They say they support us, they shake our hands, but we still haven't seen change.

"This is going to happen for as long as it needs to. As long as we have climate change and environmental degradation.

"This is about doing what's right in our hearts and how we can change our communities."

Clara White

Clara, left, alongside climate concerned students

"To come here and see the kids taking action and walking out of school is really influential because they're utilising the little power they have. It’s their future, they’re the ones that are going to get the brunt of it.

"The more you learn about climate change the more you realise it’s really systematic. Doing small things throughout your day to day life does help, but real change will need to come from government policy.

"I’m a student at Leeds University, I study Geography, we learn about climate change in our lectures. The more you learn about it the more you're pushed towards activism."

Grace Williams, 21

Grace, Lydia and Freya were part of the team stewarding the protest

"I think it’s important to call out the government on their inaction. Denial is not a policy. It’s really nice to have so many young children supporting that as well as uni students."

Lydia Dibben, 20

"These kids are missing school but they’re learning more here about their right to protest, about political activities, the inaction of the government, and climate change than they would in the classroom. And they’re out there getting their voices heard and telling the people in charge what they want."

Freya Abbotts, 22

"The people in government now are never going to see the worst effects of climate change. It’s really important the young people's voices are heard and we emphasise that we need change for them because they're the ones that will be most effected."