1180 THE GLOBAL CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTEST: STUDENT ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM A TRANSFORMATIVE DEFIANCE Volume: 4 Number: 4 Page: 1180 - 1198 Benjamin DAMOAH 1 , Sagini KEENGWE 2 , Samuel OWUSU 3 , Clement YEBOAH 4 , Francis KEKESSIE 5 1 Faculty of Education, University of Fort Hare, South Africa 2 College of Education & Human Development, University of North Dakota, United States of America 3,4 School of Education, The University of Southern Mississippi, United States of America 5 Mathematics and Natural Sciences, The University of Southern Mississippi, United States of America Corresponding author: Benjamin DAMOAH E-mail: BDamoah@ufh.ac.za Article History: Received: 2023-06-07 Revised: 2023-06-15 Accepted: 2023-07-16 Abstract: Global climate and environmental protests are a widespread movement that aims to draw attention to the urgent need for action on climate change and environmental issues. The movement has gained momentum in recent years as people worldwide have become increasingly aware of the devastating effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels, more frequent and severe natural disasters, and loss of biodiversity. This paper is theoretically grounded on social movement theory which navigated through several climate protests witnessed in recent times, particularly in sub-Sahara Africa. More than 7 million young people gather in cities throughout the globe in protest of the lack of action by world leaders to stop the severe effects of climate change and its accelerating rate. Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate activist, and others call on students to leave their classes on Fridays to protest the unending climate crises to pressure world leaders to act. These campaigns have led to growing environmental activism as more young people are becoming aware of the devastating impact of climate change on their daily lives. It was discovered that; Students have been actively involved in several climate protests defying the institution's authorities to protest for a change in the global conversation amid a series of rhetoric and indecision from world leaders. The paper has unearthed that climate activism has yielded positive outcomes, bringing transformation into global discourse in pursuit of strategic measures to address climate and environmental crises. Keywords: Social Movement, Students Protest, Youth Climate Demonstration, Environmental Crisis, Climate Change Activism Cite this as: DAMOAH, B., KEENGWE, S., OWUSU, S., YEBOAH, C., KEKESSIE, F. (2023). “The Global Climate and Environmental Protest: Student Environmental Activism a Transformative Defiance” Journal of Environmental, Sustainability and Social Science, 4 (4), 1180 - 1198. INTRODUCTION There have been student protests worldwide and for a significant portion of history. However, the demand for change in an environment of unhappiness and injustice ultimately ties them together. Japan, Sweden, and former Czechoslovakia were just a few nations where student protests took place in 1968. Students took to the streets in Paris, France, to demonstrate against domestic conservative norms and the underfunding of higher education (Jian et al., 2018). Krainz (2013) asserted that after the baby boom of the post-World War II era, French universities received many applications, which led to an increase in enrolment during the 1960s. However, the government