Our goal is to draw people’s attention to the problems that are not being addressed by the governments”, Bárbara Pereira, one of the movement’s representatives, was quoted as telling Lusa News Agency.


Over 20 cities in mainland Portugal and the islands, such as Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Faro, will take part in the protest, scheduled to start at around 10:30am.


The Portuguese minister for the Environment João Pedro Matos Fernandes has already supported the students’ initiative.
“The protest is completely in line with our government’s practice”, he said, having met student councils in the days leading up to the protest.


“We are fully committed in combating the climate change crisis and Portugal has been a role model for other countries”, including measures such as “prohibiting plastic in state departments and supporting renewable energy development”, the minister recalled.
The ‘SchoolStrike4Climate’ movement started in August when a 16-year-old schoolgirl Greta Thunberg held a solo protest outside Sweden’s parliament and has been missing class every Friday since in protest against climate change.


Current estimates point to up to 70,000 schoolchildren in 270 towns and cities worldwide taking part in protests every Friday.
Greta Thunberg has already confronted world leaders with the movement’s demand for radical climate action, first at a climate meeting in Poland in December where she accused them of acting like irresponsible children; then in Davos for the World Economic Forum when she told the gathered global elite that the climate crisis was real, adding: “I want you to panic.”


Students in Portugal have joined on social media to call for action this Friday, under banners such as: “Why go to class when we have no future anyway” and calling on the Portuguese government to make the battle against climate change its number one priority.