AFP, published Thursday, January 19, 2023 at 12:58 p.m
Greta Thunberg accused the Davos Forum on Thursday of “bringing together the people who are driving the destruction of the planet the most”, saying it was “absurd” to listen to them and calling for “massive public pressure” against fossil fuels.
Davos is “where the people who are driving the destruction of the planet the most are, the people who are in the middle of the climate crisis, the people who are investing in fossil fuels, etc.,” she said, accusing her of “greed ‘ and to put ‘short-term economic gain ahead of people and above the planet’.
“We seem to be listening to them and not to the people who are actually affected by the climate crisis, the people who are living on the front lines, and that shows us how absurd the situation is,” she lamented.
“The changes we need probably won’t come from within. I think they will come from below,” she said. “Without massive public pressure from outside…they’re going to keep investing in fossil fuels, they’re going to keep sacrificing people for their own benefit.”
The Swede, along with other young climate activists and the Director General of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, attended an event organized on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort.
“My presence here is a very important signal that I want to give to the world,” said the latter.
“Climate change needs more attention. Unfortunately, attention to climate change is declining,” he lamented, while much more investment in clean energy is needed.
Greta Thunberg was accompanied by three other climate activists: Helena Gualinga from Ecuador, Vanessa Nakate from Uganda and Luisa Neubauer from Germany.
They arrived in Davos with a petition launched this week urging multinationals to stop exploiting fossil fuels. The text had collected more than 870,000 signatures as of Wednesday evening.
– “The house is burning” –
“The oil has to stay in the ground,” Helena Gualinga said in an interview with AFP earlier this week.
“We come from different places in the world but we have the same proposal. It’s a call to say + we’re fed up! +, we are fed up because we have said it several times, we must act urgently.”
“If you don’t act immediately, be warned that citizens around the world will seek legal action to hold you accountable.
It is not the first time Greta Thunberg has come to Davos during the World Economic Forum meeting. The 2020 edition was marked in particular by his disagreements with US President Donald Trump.
It was time for “panic”, because “the house is on fire”, she hammered back then.
Earlier this week she had supported demonstrators who had spoken out against the expansion of a coal mine in West Germany.
That initiative earned him a few hours in police custody on Tuesday, according to a police source, but the backing in Davos of former US Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore, who on Wednesday “accepted” his fight.
Climate is a hot topic at this year’s meeting in Davos. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Wednesday for oil companies to be prosecuted like tobacco companies for years of withholding information about global warming.
“Some fossil fuel producers in the 1970s were well aware that their flagship product was going to burn up the planet,” he said in a speech denouncing their “big lie.”