“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, told Lusa News Agency.

Over 20 cities in mainland Portugal and the island, such as Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Faro, will take part of the protest, scheduled for 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 told Lusa.

“We are fully committed in combating the climate change crisis and Portugal has been a role model for other countries”, namely “by forbidding plastic in state departments and supporting renewable energy development”, the minister highlighted.

The ‘SchoolStrike4Climate’ movement started in August when a 16-year-old schoolgirl Greta Thunberg held a solo protest outside Sweden’s parliament.

Now, up to 70,000 schoolchildren each week are taking part in 270 towns and cities worldwide.

Greta 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.”