Greta Thunberg calls COP26 a ‘failure’ as youth demand action
- The Swedish activist says some pledges made at the UN climate summit were little more than a ‘celebration of business as usual’
- Two days of protests are planned to highlight the disconnect between the urgency of the climate crisis and the glacial pace of emissions reductions
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Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg on Friday branded the UN climate summit in Glasgow a “failure” during a mass protest in the Scottish city demanding quicker action from leaders to address the emergency.
Thunberg said that pledges from some nations made during COP26 to accelerate their emissions cuts amounted to little more than “a two-week long celebration of business as usual and ‘blah, blah, blah’.”
“It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure,” she told the thousands of people gathered at the protest.
“This is no longer a climate conference. This is now a global greenwashing festival.”
Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Glasgow to hammer out how to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.
The first week of talks saw countries announce plans to phase out coal use and to end foreign fossil fuel funding, but there were few details on how they plan the mass decarbonisation scientists say is needed.
The promises followed a major assessment that showed global carbon dioxide emissions are set to rebound in 2021 to pre-pandemic levels.
“They cannot ignore the scientific consensus and they cannot ignore us,” Thunberg said. “Our leaders are not leading. This is what leadership looks like,” she said gesturing to the crowd.
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Two days of demonstrations are planned by activist groups to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of emissions reductions and the climate emergency already swamping countries across the world.
Onlookers to Friday’s march lined the streets and hung out of windows to watch the stream of protesters, who held banners reading “No Planet B” and “Climate Action Now”.
“I’m here because the world leaders are deciding the fate of our future and the present of people that have already been impacted by climate crisis,” said 18-year-old Valentina Ruas. “We won’t accept anything that isn’t real climate policy centred on climate justice.”
Experts say a commitment made during the high-level leaders’ summit at the start of COP26 by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by at least 30 per cent this decade will have a real short-term impact on global heating.
But environmental groups pointed out that governments, particularly wealthy polluters, have a habit of failing to live up to their climate promises.
“I expect this protest to remind world leaders and negotiators and politicians that young people are watching them,” said Brianna Fruean, 23, from Western Samoa.
Countries came into COP26 with national climate plans that, when brought together, put Earth on course to warm 2.7 degrees this century, according to the UN.
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With just 1.1 degrees of warming so far, communities across the world are already facing ever more intense fire and drought, displacement and economic ruin wrought by the Earth’s heating climate.
“Scientists have done what they need to do, they’ve told us about the problem. Young people have done what they need to do by calling attention to this issue,” said Natalie Tariro Chido Mangondo, a Zimbabwean climate and gender advocate.
“And it’s just up to our leaders to get their act together.”
Campaigners say they expect up to 50,000 demonstrators in the Scottish city on Saturday as part of a global round of climate protests.
