Why this Sheffield city centre shop on Fargate has been closed all morning

Lush on Fargate has closed its doors this morning in protest over climate change as global climate strike takes place across the world today.

In a post on Instagram, Lush said: “Sorry we are closed. Lush is responding to the call from school strike for climate asking adults to suspend business as usual whilst they rally today to demand action on climate change.

“We will be happy to serve you when we reopen at 1pm. ‘#climatestrike.”

Some of Friday's first protests were held in Australia, where an estimated 300,000 people gathered at more than 100 rallies calling for action to guard against climate change, with further demonstrations held across parts of Asia.

Protesters joining the climate strikes in Britain can expect a day of unseasonably warm weather as they call on businesses and politicians to cut emissions.

Children and young people across the country are preparing to walk out of lessons and lectures, with hundreds of thousands of workers expected to join them.

The protests are part of a snowballing movement sparked by teenage activist Greta Thunberg's school strikes outside the Swedish parliament.

The first large-scale protests of Friday's "global climate strike" took place in Sydney and Canberra, with demonstrators calling on leaders in Australia, the world's largest exporter of coal and liquid natural gas, to take more drastic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The protests come ahead of a climate summit at the UN next week convened by secretary-general Antonio Guterres to urge countries to up their climate efforts.

Much steeper measures are needed across the globe to prevent temperature rises of more than 1.5C (2.7F) or 2C (3.6F) to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

As if to underline the urgency of the issue, the mercury is set to hit 26C (78.8F) in parts of Britain this weekend - 8C above the average for the time of year.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: "It is unbelievable that we should need global strike action for the future of our planet to be taken seriously.

"The stark reality is that our climate is changing rapidly and we are running out of time to address it.

"I hope governments around the world who are failing to take action hear the voices of millions of people, young and old, unified in their call for action to save our planet. Our future depends on it."