Climate and environmental activist Greta Thumberg attacked the collective inaction of world leaders on the issues of climate change. "Three decades of blah, blah, blah," said Thunberg, implying that very little of promises and pledges had been actually fulfilled in the last three decades.
Thunberg was addressing hundreds of young activists from about 190 countries who have assembled in Italy's Milan this week for Youth4Climate summit. The convergence will send its recommendations to United Nations climate summit that will begin in Glasgow, Scotland on 31 October.
"They invite cherry-picked young people to pretend they are listening to us. But they are not. They are clearly not listening to us. Just look at the numbers. Emissions are still rising. The science doesn't lie."Greta Thunberg, Climate and Environmental Activist
While lambasting the world leaders, the 18-year-old Swedish activist accused governments of “shamelessly congratulating themselves" for insufficient pledges of funding and cutting emissions.
Years after leaders at the 1992 Rio summit in Brazil pledged to tackle environmental problems, youth activists brought climate change to the top of the global agenda. Now their goal is to come up with solutions ahead of the COP26 United Nations summit.
The UN COP26 aims to secure more ambitious climate action from the nearly 200 countries who signed the 2015 Paris Agreement and agreed to try to limit human-caused global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius.
Thunberg, who hit the headlines with the global movement Fridays for Future, however, showed optimism and said it wasn't too late to reverse climate trends.
"Leaders like to say, 'We can do it.' They obviously don't mean it. But we do... There is no planet B... Change is not only possible but necessary, but not if we go on like we have until today."Greta Thunberg, Climate and Environmental Activist
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