Less words, more action
A strong speech about climate change by a young activist captivated the world earlier this week, with Greta Thunberg’s words printed on front page headlines across the globe.
It took real guts for the 16-year-old to stand before world leaders at the United Nations and shame them over their lack of action in tackling climate change.
“How dare you? This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here,” said Thunberg, who began a lone protest outside the Swedish parliament more than a year ago that culminated in Friday’s global climate strikes.
“I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you have come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”
“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and yet all you can talk about is money,” Thunberg said. “You are failing us.”
Later, she and 15 other youth activists filed a formal complaint with an arm of the UN that protects children, saying that governments’ lack of action on warming is violating their basic rights.
Greta’s emotional speech seems to have moved many world leaders, with 77 countries pledging by the end of the summit to commit to carbon neutrality by 2050. Seventy nations pledged to do more to fight climate change, 100 business leaders promised to join the green economy and a third of the global banking sector signed up to green goals.
But not all world leaders were so sympathetic. US President Donald Trump, who refutes scientific research on climate change, actually mocked the teen activist. “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” he tweeted.
And commentators said that, despite all the talk and pledges of funds and initiatives, they had big reservations about whether these would ultimately make the required difference.
The truth is that we have seen many summits where global economies pledge to do more to reduce global warming but, eventually, all these pledges fizzle out. Take, for example, the Paris Agreement of 2016. The US pulled out the following year and it was reported earlier this week that most businesses would not meet their climate targets.
One also wonders what we are doing on a local level. Yes, the government says it is committed to reaching the EU 2020 targets and advancements have been made, for example, with regard to energy production, with the shift to a gas-fired power station. But at the same time we are still widening our roads, incentivising car use when we should be doing the opposite. Schemes have been launched to incentivise the purchase of electric vehicles, and fossil-fuel burning vehicles will be banned some years down the line, but one cannot help but feel that we are still not doing enough.
Climate change is a phenomenon that will affect all of us whether we like it or not. It will affect small island states like ours even more than others. It is high time that our leaders start sticking to their promises and make this issue a top political priority. It may already be too late.