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Greta Thunberg calls UN climate talks a failure

Greta Thunberg branded the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow so far “a failure,” accusing leaders of actively creating loopholes in the rules and greenwashing their countries’ emissions.

Thousands of environmental activists have gathered in a Glasgow park to call on governments at the nearby U.N. climate talks to step up their action against global warming.

The 18-year-old took to the stage amid cheers from activists and said that “drastic cuts” were needed to halt climate change and that the conference is a celebration of “business as usual and blah blah blah”.

Greta Thunberg calls UN climate talks a failure

Her speech at the protest comes the day after the 18-year-old Swedish environmentalist suggested that summit talks were becoming a “greenwashing campaign” for politicians and business leaders. It would be more of a success if people understood what a “failure” Cop26 has been, she added.

Greta Thunberg calls UN climate talks a failure

Speaking at a rally outside the conference venue, Thunberg called for tougher rules to clamp down on polluters instead of what she termed “distant, non-binding pledges.”

“World leaders are obviously scared of the truth, yet no matter how hard they try, they cannot escape it,” she said. “They cannot ignore the scientific consensus, and above all they cannot ignore us – the people, including their own children.”

Greta Thunberg calls UN climate talks a failure

“The leaders are not doing nothing; they are actively creating loopholes and shaping frameworks to benefit themselves, and to continue profiting from this destructive system. This is an active choice by the leaders to continue the exploitation of nature and people and the destruction of presents and future living conditions to take place”, she said, calling the conference a “greenwashing event”.

Other Fridays for Future members, speaking to UN News, asked for more participation and better youth representation in the negotiations that are underway at COP26.

Greta Thunberg calls UN climate talks a failure

“Every year we have been disappointed by COP, and I don’t think this year will be different. There is a sliver of hope but at the same time we don’t see enough action, we can’t achieve anything with just pledges and empty promises”, said a representative of Youth Advocates for Climate Change in the Philippines

“Negotiations are happening and yet we are here in the street, because we haven’t been included. The richest people come in their private jets and take the decisions. We are here and we won’t be ignored. We will make our own space”, another climate advocate added.

The activists, most of them young, carried banners at Friday’s rally with slogans such as “I have to clear up my mess, why don’t you clear up yours?” and “Stop climate crimes.”

The protest was part of a series of demonstrations being staged around the world Friday and Saturday to coincide with the Oct. 31-Nov. 12 U.N. climate change conference in Scotland.

Some at the Glasgow demonstration accused negotiators at the COP26 conference of “greenwashing” failures to curb greenhouse gas emissions and promoting policies that won’t do enough to prevent dangerous temperature rises in the coming decades.

“We are here as civil society to send them a message that ‘enough is enough’,” Valentina Ruiz, an 18-year-old student from Brazil, said.

Brianna Fruean, a 23-year-old activist from Samoa, said, “My biggest fear is losing my country.” Samao, a low-lying Pacific island nation, is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and cyclones,

Fruean was given the stage at the beginning of the conference, known as COP26, where she told leaders about the effects of climate change already being felt in her country.

“I will know if I’ve been heard by the end of COP,” she said.

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