EVER since he can remember 11-year-old Finlay Pringle has been fascinated by the natural world.

From tracking the footprints of animals to snorkelling in the sea, the wildlife and environment surrounding his home in Ullapool in Wester Ross has been a vital part of his life.

But a few years ago, Finlay began to worry about the future of the planet with growing media concerns about issues such as plastic pollution and global warming.

He said: “I have been interested in nature since I was very young because I watched wildlife programmes and that was what sparked my imagination.

"When I got a bit older I used to go on a lot of walks trying to track animals with their prints and I went snorkelling in the sea.

“Then I started to hear that the planet was getting warmer and that we were polluting it with plastic and I started to get concerned, but I didn’t think we could do anything about it.”

Last summer, Finlay heard about the climate change protests of 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who skipped school to raise awareness about the planet.

Her demands for the Swedish government to reduce carbon emissions gained worldwide attention and she began to inspire thousands of pupils across the world.

Hearing about her work made Finlay decide to take similar action himself, becoming one of the first pupils in the UK to hold a weekly hour-long strike outside his primary school from December 14th.

“I heard about Greta through Facebook and I was impressed with what she was doing and I thought it could make a difference,” he said.

“I decided to do my own strike outside the school. I spoke to my parents and the school about it and they were very supportive.

“It started off with me, my sister Ella and her best friend Megan. We stood outside the school with placards to raise awareness about the problems the planet is facing.”

Finlay has been a little disappointed his protests have not spread quite as widely as he had hoped, but now he has an opportunity to take his message to the world stage.

Green parties at the European Parliament in Strasbourg want young activists from around the world to attend a climate change debate on Wednesday and then speak to the media about their concerns afterwards.

Finlay is the only protestor to have been chosen from Scotland and is one of only three from the UK to join pupils from countries across the world including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands.

“We wanted more and more people to join us from the school, which hasn’t really happened, and we hoped it would spread across the UK, which again hasn’t quite happened yet,” he said.

“A bunch of kids at my school sometimes have a laugh at me or shout things at me. I get over it, but it is frustrating because everyone needs to understand that climate change will have an impact on all of us and some people don’t care.

“The problem is pure habit and human beings doing the things they have always done even if it is damaging the planet.

“It is also a human habit to wait until the last second to do something about it. We are not quite at that last second, but we are getting there soon and need to start taking action. Everyone can make a difference.”

Finlay’s father, Geoff, who is also going on the trip, backed his son’s action.

He said: “We have always been very supportive and proud of what he is doing because it is a major issue for his generation.

“We have been talking about this since the 1980s and we just haven’t done anything about it and the message needs to be heard.”

Last week, councils were urged not to punish pupils for leaving school to take part in climate change strikes - as long as they have permission from their parents.

Scottish Green politicians have written to councils across the country urging them to support pupils who want to take part in the next day of action on 15th March.

An estimated 15,000 people took part in a wave of climate strikes across the UK in February, inspired by Greta.

The worldwide action follows a UN climate summit in Poland which agreed rules for implementing an agreement which aims to keep global warming as close to 1.5C as possible by 2100.

However, the world remains on track for 3C of warming by the target date, which scientists says will bring catastrophic extreme weather resulting in mass extinctions of animals and the destruction of crops and flooding.