Thousands of students around the world marched into the streets as part of a coordinated global protest on Friday to demand more urgent action on climate change.

Youth organizations School Strike for Climate and Fridays for Future combined forces to host this year's climate protests, with demonstrations and rallies planned on all continents.

The day of demonstrations kicked off in New Zealand and included crowds of thousands of protests in cities across Europe as well.

About 5,500 people joined the strikes with Fridays for Future in Hamburg, Germany, according to police, while large crowds rallied in Italian cities including Rome, Florence, and Milan. Students in Vienna protested in front of the headquarters of the Austrian Green Party to demand more concerted political effort.

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Banners waved by Gen-Zers called for concrete measures to protect the environment and the climate.

"The climate is changing - why aren't we?" or "Our anger is renewable energy" could be read on posters at the protest in Florence, according to the ANSA news agency.

In Milan, the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion used beetroot to dye the iconic fountain in the city center blood red in protest and placed dead fish in front of a government building, ANSA reported.

"We are deeply concerned about the inaction of the current government when it comes to climate protection," Angelo Bonelli, a spokesman for the Italian Greens, said on the sidelines of the climate demonstration in Rome.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government effort to make Italy a "European gas hub" will make the country even more dependent on fossil fuels, he said.

Left-wing Italian Senator Giuseppe De Cristofaro said something similar: "Drought and extreme weather events are changing our planet and endangering the future of our children."

In Germany, demonstrations were planned in about 200 different cities. At a rally in Hamburg, youth activists demanded action to cut down on the number of cars and government efforts to cut rail fares and improve service.

"The number of cars on German roads must go down," demanded Fridays for Future's Annika Rittmann in a speech. Rittmann accused German leaders of obstructing those efforts.

New Zealand youth called for no new exploration or mining of new fossil fuel resources, lowering the voting age to 16, and more marine protected areas.

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New Zealand's Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the country had had a "glimpse of one possible vision" of the future climate.

"The destruction caused by the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle has been crushing. People have lost their loved ones, and countless lives have been upended. This is climate change," he said.

"Quite frankly, we are running out of time and I am running out of patience. We need urgent action."

The Fridays for Future movement was started by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has galvanized young people around the world with her activism since she began organizing a weekly school strike and rally outside the Swedish parliament in 2018 when she was 16 years old.