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NSW students walk out for climate policies

Farid FaridAAP
Thousands of students have ditched classes in order to strike in Sydney for climate action.
Camera IconThousands of students have ditched classes in order to strike in Sydney for climate action. Credit: AAP

Thousands of school students have descended on the NSW Liberal Party headquarters in Sydney calling for more action on climate change.

The rally was organised during the federal election campaign to raise awareness about the severity of climate disasters such as the recent floods across NSW and Queensland.

Carrying placards with the words "There is no Planet B" and chanting slogans, the students who walked out of school marched down central Sydney.

"The strike is a way to involve ourselves in a democracy as people who are under 18 and can't vote," 16-year-old Wirajduri student Ethan Lyons told AAP on Friday.

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Mr Lyons, one of the organisers, pointed specifically to how Indigenous Australians are "disproportionately affected by the climate crisis", and that more action was needed by the federal and state governments to move towards renewable energy by 2030.

At the height of the floods, more than 36,500 Indigenous residents who live in the officially declared natural disaster zones in NSW had been directly, or indirectly, impacted by the natural disaster, according to NSW Labor.

Cabbage Tree Island, where multi-generational Aboriginal families have lived for more than 100 years, was particularly hit hard during the relentless floods.

Both state and federal governments have committed to disbursing $70 million to build new homes for more than 170 residents who were displaced.

An extra $50 million will also go towards the repair and reconstruction of Aboriginal community infrastructure owned by Local Aboriginal Land Councils.

But Mr Lyons was insistent current governments needed to commit towards 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

The demonstration comes weeks after another climate strike in front of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's official Sydney residence at Kirribilli.

The latest State of The Environment report issued by the NSW Environment Protection Authority in February found climate change has pushed temperatures in NSW 1.1C higher than last century.

The 124-page report also noted the rate of sea level rise has nearly doubled from 1.7 millimetres for most of the 20th century, to 3.4 millimetres from 1991 onwards.

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