Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg launched a new broadside yesterday against “role-playing” by political and economic leaders over the climate crisis, accusing them of using it as a business opportunity.
Appearing via video-link at the Austrian World Summit on climate policy hosted by former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, she described the reaction of those in power to the groundswell of climate activism.
“Eventually the public pressure was too much. So you started to ‘act’,” Thunberg said. “But ‘acting’ as in role-playing. Playing politics, playing with words, playing with our future.”
Thunberg, 18, derided wealthy nations’ climate commitments as “vastly insufficient” in the face of “more and more extreme weather events ... raging all around us”.
This week a heatwave in western Canada and the northwestern United States smashed temperature records and has been linked to dozens of excess deaths (see lead report on Page 8).
Thunberg said net zero emissions targets announced by major economies “could be a great start, if they weren’t full of gaps and loopholes” such as “leaving out emissions from imported goods, international aviation and shipping”.
In addition they rely on “baseline manipulation” and the use of unproven technology, according to the activist, who rose to prominence by mounting a series of school strikes for the climate which inspired a global movement.
“The climate crisis is today – at best – being treated only as a business opportunity to create green new jobs, new green businesses and technologies,” she said.
The summit, launched five years ago by Schwarzenegger, aims to highlight “concrete solutions and measures from global decision-makers” in response to the challenge of climate change.
Greta Thunberg
