Forget Brexit and focus on climate change, Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg tells EU leaders

Referring to Monday’s Notre Dame fire, she calls for ‘cathedral thinking’ to tackle environmental challenges

Ten-minute speech is interrupted by frequent applause and ends with 30-second standing ovation

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Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg delivers a speech during a meeting with the environment committee of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:07am, 17 Apr 2019Updated: 4:39am, 17 Apr 2019

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has chided EU leaders for holding three emergency summits on Brexit and none on the threat posed by climate change.

In a clarion call to Europe’s political leaders ahead of European Parliament elections in May, the founder of the school strike movement said if politicians were serious about tackling climate change they would not spend all their time “talking about taxes or Brexit”.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg reacts during a debate with the EU Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

In a typically blunt speech, she said politicians were failing to take enough action on climate change and the threats to the natural world.

“Our house is falling apart and our leaders need to start acting accordingly because at the moment they are not,” the 16-year old schoolgirl from Sweden told a standing-room-only meeting of MEPs and European Union officials in Strasbourg, France.

“If our house was falling apart our leaders wouldn’t go on like we do today,” she said. “If our house was falling apart you wouldn’t hold three emergency Brexit summits and no emergency summit regarding the breakdown of the climate and the environment.”