“We seem to be listening to them more than the people who are really affected by the climate crisis,” Thunberg emphasized.
The climate activist Greta Thunberg accused the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday of bringing together “the people who are most fueling the destruction of the planet”, calling it “absurd” to listen to them, and called for massive public pressure against fossil fuel energy.
Davos is “the place where the people who are fueling most of the destruction of the planet, the people who are right at the heart of the climate crisis, the people who invest in fossil fuel energy, etc.,” he noted, accusing them of putting the “greed” and “short-term financial gains over people and over the planet.”
“We seem to be listening to them more than the people who are really affected by the climate crisis, the people who live on the front lines, and that shows us how absurd the situation is,” he stressed.
“The changes that we need are probably unlikely to come from within. I think more that they will come from the grassroots,” he added. “Without massive public pressure coming from outside (…) they will continue to sacrifice people for their own gain.”
I am at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Together with @GretaThunberg , @luisaneubauer and @SumakHelena we wrote an open letter to fossil fuel CEOs. We call on them to end the fossil expansion. Over 850k people have already signed. #ClimateJusticeNow https://t.co/G6fU16wyaM
— Vanessa Nakate (@vanessa_vash) January 18, 2023
The Swedish activist attended an event organized on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos, Switzerland, alongside other young climate activists and International Energy Agency Director-General Fatih Birol. “My presence here is an important indication of the fact that I want to offer to the world,” said Birol.
“Climate change needs to be given more attention. Unfortunately, attention to climate change is decreasing,” he noted, at a time when we should be investing much more in clean energy sources.
Greta Thunberg is joined by three other climate activists: Elena Gualinga from the Ecuadorian Amazon, Ugandan Vanessa Nakate and German Luisa Neubauer. They arrived in Davos with a petition that began gathering signatures this week. With it they ask to stop the exploitation of energy from fossil fuels by the multinationals. The petition had gathered more than 870,000 signatures as of yesterday evening, Wednesday.
“Our house is burning”
“Oil should stay in the ground,” Elena Gualinga said earlier this week in an interview with AFP.
“We come from different parts of the world, but we have the same proposal. It consists in the request to say ‘enough!’, enough because as we have already said enough, we need urgent action,” he noted.
“If you do not act immediately, we warn you that citizens of the entire world will consider taking legal action to bring you to justice. And we will continue to demonstrate in large numbers in the streets,” the petition said.
It is not the first time that Thunberg has gone to Davos during the World Economic Forum conference. 2020 was mainly marked by her confrontation with then US President Donald Trump.
The time has come to “panic” because “our house is on fire”, he was already saying since then.
Earlier this week, the Swedish activist went to support protesters opposing a coal mine expansion in western Germany.
Although her initiative resulted in her being detained for several hours on Tuesday, according to a police source, she also had an expression of support in Davos from former US vice-president and environmentalist Al Gore, who yesterday said he “agreed”. with her struggle.
Climate is a key topic at this year’s Davos summit. Yesterday UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the prosecution, as was done with the tobacco industry, of oil giants for hiding for years the information they had about climate change.
“Some fossil energy producers absolutely knew in the 1970s that their primary product would set the planet on fire,” Antonio Guterres said from the floor of the Davos Forum, condemning their “big lie”.
RES-EMP
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
