A number of young people have become “full-time activists” against climate change, giving up education and work due to the urgency of the crisis, one of the leading protesters has said.

Evelyn Acham a Ugandan activist with the Rise Up movement in Africa, said the issue had spurred young people to abandon other parts of their lives to focus on pushing for action.

Ms Acham was speaking as tens of thousands of young people were taking to the streets of Glasgow in a bid to pressure world leaders to ensure firm action is taken as a result of the Cop26 climate summit.

Another activist, American Sophia Kianni, said “not much” had been done at previous Cop meetings before the one ongoing in Glasgow, but she added there should be “cautious optimism” for a positive outcome given pledges to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5C.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Friday, Ms Acham said: “The young people going out there to march gives us hope.

“The future belongs to those young people, because they still have a lot of time, they haven’t achieved a lot, but the older generation have already achieved so much and (climate change) probably won’t be so much their problem.

“But young people still have work to do, they still have school to do, they have a future to build, so this is our concern.

“Many young people have given up school to become full-time activists, some have given up work, some have given up going for a masters degree, just because they’re seeing the urgency of this.

“To the young people, this is very urgent, because we need to settle down and do other things, we need to go back to school, we need to focus on the future.”

Ms Acham added that young people continue to take to the streets across the world because “we do not have a choice”.

Ms Kianni, who is a member of the UN Secretary General’s climate change advisory panel, said young people’s voices have historically been excluded from high level discussions on the climate.

“We don’t have tangible decision-making powers and we’re not built into this spaces the way that we should be,” she said.

“I’m hopeful because of people like you, Evelyn – I’m hopeful because of the people on the streets who are going out and striking and making sure our voices are heard. But as far as the processes inside the building go, I’m not too sure yet.

“I think at the end of these two weeks we’ll see whether or not any progress has been made, but time after time we’ve seen at Cop that not much has been done, and so I think we should have cautious optimism, but we shouldn’t be overly optimistic.”

Meanwhile, the UK Government’s Education Secretary said youth climate protesters should demonstrate at the weekend rather than during school hours.

Asked on Times Radio whether he has been invited to join the marches, Nadhim Zahawi said: “No… I have to say, I wish they were doing it on a Saturday and a Sunday, not in school time.

“I’d hate to get into a situation where headteachers and teachers are having to fine families and students.

“We’ve got two weekends of Cop here in Glasgow when they can have lawful demonstrations, and they should have those and have the right to do that, and I would happily engage with anyone who wants to come and tell me exactly what they think.”