Year 12 student Callum Campbell and year 11 student Campbell Knox captured the crowd at the Schools Strike 4 Climate in Cessnock on Friday.

"The government must understand that the economy depends upon a healthy environment for so much and negligence of this will lead our ecosystem into ruin," Callum said.

"We have waited too long now for responsible reform to secure our future, as well as that for hundreds more generations of children to come after us."

Campbell called on politicians to make better decisions and urged communities to work together to achieve common goals.

"I am a staunch believer in the beauty that is the human race, and the potential we have if only we could work together to achieve the goals that we know we all have and aspire to be the greatest people we possibly can be," he said.

"The entire future of humanity is put at risk by the men and women who do not truly grasp the true understanding of their actions, or even some who choose to be ignorant to the lasting impact against a serious action on climate change as towards the future of our earth and the future of the people they are appointed to represent."

The Cessnock event was one of about 100 protests across the country.

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Cessnock-Kurri Greens Party member Janet Murray also took to the microphone. She called out the negative effects of coal mining.

It disturbs me when I hear people say that we can continue to mine coal for export - that's not "our problem". That gets counted against the receiving country's Paris Agreement - it doesn't affect our commitments. Sorry, but this is hypocritical garbage! There is only one atmosphere around this planet. All CO2 from burning fossil fuel goes into that atmosphere, trapping heat, further increasing temperatures," she said.

"CO2 emissions are the highest they have been in the last 800 000 years and global temperatures have already increased by nearly 1 degree. This is already enough to give us catastrophic bushfires, extreme floods and melting ice sheets.

"We need leadership that acknowledges the problems we are facing and looks for solutions, rather than burying their heads in the sand or should I say coal? We need to all pull together, rather than fight amongst ourselves. We should aim for a society where everyone can earn a good wage and no one's children are placed at risk of harm through the actions of others."