The Croatian youth initiative "Fridays For Future Croatia" has joined a global climate protest calling for government action to tackle climate change.

About 1,000 protesters gathered in central Zagreb on Friday evening urging the government to confront climate destabilisation and adopt an action plan for a transition to green energy. They called for an immediate end to all fossil projects currently under preparation, including the LNG terminal, thermal power plants using fossil fuels and the Adriatic-Ionian gas pipeline, and for investment in green energy sources.

Chanting “Time is now” and “Eco, not ego”, activists also called for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, forming a multidisciplinary commission on environmental sustainability and banning the use of single-use plastics.

Protesters said that the global climate crisis posed a major threat and called on the government to start acting now because resources such as clean water, air and food were becoming scarcer as the number of people on Earth was growing.

The youth initiative was supported by many non-governmental organisations, including Greenpeace, Green Action and Friends of Animals, trade unions and public figures.

Similar protests were also held in Osijek, Rijeka and Split and were part of a global strike planned for September 20-27 in over 100 countries.