As preparations are underway for a global climate strike next week, Rita Panahi says many of the kids involved are simply looking for a day off school.

The worldwide School Strike 4 Climate on September 20 will likely see thousands of Australian students skip school to take part and put pressure on the federal government to address climate change.

But Rita Panahi tells Steve Price she’s sceptical about the motives of a lot of the kids.

“If you actually feel strongly about something you sacrifice for it. So what do you do? You give up your Saturday or your Sunday.

“Giving up school to be at a place with your mates and carry on, that’s not really caring about anything. 

“At that age, I would’ve pretty much opted for anything other than school, and I think a lot of kids would be in that category.”

Click PLAY below to hear her comments in full

An Australian teachers federation is urging teachers to wear green for the upcoming strike.

Activists ran a training session at the NSW Teachers Federation conference centre and gave tips to budding volunteers about crowd control.

Not-for-profit business advocacy group B Lab took out a full-page advertisement in a Sydney paper to encourage their workers to participate.

CEO Andrew Davies tells Steve Price they support the strike.

“The student groups running the climate strike have issued an open invitation asking people to be there to support them and we support that idea.”

Click PLAY to hear the full interview