World leaders received an angry rebuke from 16-year old Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, during the opening session of the United Nations Secretary General Climate Action Summit in New York.
Over 60 world leaders are taking part in an event to raise ambitions towards addressing climate related challenges, seeking to reduce carbon emissions, remove subsidies for fossil fuels and transition economies away from coal.
The Secretary General also issued a sobering warning that if the global community does not change the way we live, that it would jeopardize life itself.
It was an extraordinary moment in the UN General Assembly chamber.
Thunberg displayed a level of impatience seldom seen and a stunned audience were never ready for it.
“This is all wrong, I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words and yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying, entire eco-systems are collapsing, we are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth – how dare you?”
She told her audience of world leaders including Presidents and Prime Ministers that the science had been crystal clear for more than three decades and the requisite political solutions were nowhere near where they needed to be.
“There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today because these numbers are too uncomfortable and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are failing us but the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you and if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you.”
The United States delegation led by climate denialist President Donald Trump, who was not scheduled to attend, put in a surprise but brief appearance; while the UN Chief Antonio Guterres again reminded his audience that the last five years were the hottest on record.
“Someone asked me the other day, doesn’t all of this make you despair? My answer was a clear and resounding no. I am hopeful. And I am hopeful because of you. This is not a climate talk summit. We have had enough talk. This is not a climate negotiation summit because we don’t negotiate with nature. This is a climate action summit. From the beginning, I said the ticket to entry is not a beautiful speech, but concrete action.”
Brazilian social environmental defender, Paloma Costa, also highlighted the role of indigenous communities in the fight against climate change.
“I have witnessed how indigenous traditional communities and other minority groups are being impacted by the climate crisis. You know back in Brazil a great indigenous leader recently said that indigenous people have been resisting since the beginning. What about us. Are we going to be be able to resist. Well – we are not going to work with industries that deforest… we are not going to be silent, we have already changed our habits and you are not following us. Indigenous people have all this connection with the earth and we still fail to listen to them.”
Among the early speakers, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel announced her government plans to phase out coal reliance by 2038 amidst calls from the UN for carbon neutral economies by 2050.
The scientific community has called for greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced by 45% by 2030 in order to limit the temperature rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
