INTERNATIONAL: Hundreds of protesters, mostly teenagers, marched the streets of Sydney on Friday (May 6) to demand more action on climate change by the Australian government ahead of the national election.

School strikers, trade union members, university students and indigenous Australians held banners, waved placards and chanted as they marched through the city's central business district to gather outside the state headquarters of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Liberal Party.

Climate change is a charged political issue in Australia, which is a major producer of coal and gas and has long been criticized for being one of the world's biggest carbon emitters on a per capita basis.

Australia, which goes to a general election on May 21, has a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 but activists say that date is too distant.