Know better. Do better.

More than 60 nations with almost half the world's population go to the polls in 2024.

Together, these countries are responsible for more than 40% of the world's planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions.

Many are also grappling with the effects of climate change, such as record-breaking heatwaves, floods and drought.

The outcome of many of these polls will impact the future of global climate action, not least elections for the European Parliament this week.

As our Europe correspondent Joanna Gill reports, many of the young climate activists inspired by Swedish school-strike leader Greta Thunberg are now coming of age and swapping banners for ballots in campaigns from Paris to Prague.

Joanna spoke to Petr Doubravský who was a high-school student when he co-founded the Czech branch of Thunberg's school strike for climate movement in 2018.

Now 22, Doubravský is running as a candidate for the Green Party in the European Parliament elections.

"We need to make those who are responsible for the climate crisis pay for it," said Doubravský.

Former school climate striker Lena Schilling is also now the lead candidate for Austria's Greens, while Sybille Douvillez, a climate activist since the age of 14, is standing for France's socialist-affiliated Place Publique.

The elections come at a critical time as EU countries set out Green Deal policies and roll out their 2030 energy and climate targets.

One of the world's top emitters, the EU, has set itself ambitious green targets. While surveys show most Europeans support measures to tackle climate change, many people worry about the price.

That has fuelled a backlash against green policies and political leaders have sometimes caved, for example in response to farmers protests, by rolling back green targets for agriculture and diluting biodiversity law.

Polls suggest right-leaning parties who oppose policies tackling climate change making inroads, with the European Greens, now the fourth biggest bloc in the parliament, slated to slip to fifth or sixth.

In the face of such challenges, whether the young green activists are able to connect with the electorate and break through to mainstream politics, the polls will decide.

See you again next week - while my colleague Jack is on a well-deserved break, I will attempt to fill his shoes.

Until then,

Bhasker