Berlin: Some 10,000 protesters, most of them young students, gathered in a downtown square in Berlin on Friday to march against climate change.
The students waved signs with slogans such as "There is no planet B" and "Climate Protection Report Card: F" before a march through the capital's government quarter.
The march was to end with a demonstration outside Chancellor Angela Merkel's office.
Organiser Carla Reemtsma, a 20-year-old university student, said social media had been key in reaching people directly to coordinate the massive protests in so many different locations, noting that that she was in 50 WhatsApp groups and fielding some 30,000 messages a day.
Some politicians have criticised the students, suggesting they should be spending their time in school, not on the streets.
But scientists have backed the protests, with thousands signing petitions in support of the students in Britain, Finland and Germany.
Scientists have warned for decades that current levels of greenhouse gas emissions are unsustainable, so far with little effect. In 2015, world leaders agreed in Paris to a goal of keeping the Earth's global temperature rise by the end of the century well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
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Yet at present, the world is on track for an increase of four degrees Celsius, which experts say would have far-reaching consequences for life on the planet.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have publicly welcomed the student protests, even as their policies have been criticised as too limited by environmental activists.
