Greta Thunberg Tells COP31 The Planet “Is Being Killed” By Those Meant To Save It
In her first appearance at the climate talks in five years, Thunberg said no one is coming to the rescue. She linked global heating to war and the loss of basic rights.
ANTALYA, Turkey, Nov 13 – Climate activist Greta Thunberg told the COP31 summit on Thursday that the Earth is not dying but being killed, accusing world governments of failing to stop the destruction of the environment. It was her first appearance at the annual United Nations climate talks in five years.
“The planet is not dying, it is being killed,” Thunberg said.
She said the planet is being killed by the very people who were thought to be coming to the rescue. And she said she knows who they are.
Thunberg, 23, rose to fame as the leader of the school climate strike movement. She spoke on the fourth day of the two-week summit, alongside activists from Nepal, Canada and Australia.
She told the crowd that no one is coming to save them. When states and other institutions threaten people’s human rights, she said, it is everyone’s duty to stand up, act as the adult in the room and fight for the rights of all.
In recent years, Thunberg has broadened her focus beyond climate to include the war in Gaza. On Thursday, she linked rising temperatures to other disasters, including war.
She said the world is heading toward a future marked by more genocides and more ecocides, the destruction of the natural world on a vast scale. She warned of a future in which basic rights are lost, and basic needs become luxuries.
She said meetings like this one make it clearer than ever that the situation is out of control.
Her speech came as world leaders who traveled to the Mediterranean city shared their own views on the climate crisis and the slow progress in addressing it.
Thunberg arrived in Antalya on Tuesday. As she walked into the venue, she told reporters that the talks were a matter of life and death, but that she did not expect this summit to be any different from the 30 before it. She has called the summits greenwashed circuses, where leaders talk while emissions keep rising.
Her return to the talks stands out. In 2021, she went to COP26 in Glasgow, where she dismissed much of what leaders said as empty words. She stayed away from the summits after that.
Others at the summit have also raised alarms this week. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told leaders on Wednesday that the climate crisis is outrunning the world, and that fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs.
Thunberg began her protest in August 2018, when she sat alone outside the Swedish parliament with a sign calling for a school strike for the climate. Her action spread around the world and became the Fridays for Future movement, which drew millions of young people onto the streets.
The summit is being held in Turkey, while Australia leads the formal talks. Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are trying to agree on a plan to raise the share of electricity in the world’s energy use and to revive efforts to move away from oil, gas and coal.
