Leaders get an earful from teen activist
NEW YORK: An emotional Greta Thunberg tore into world leaders at a United Nations (UN) climate summit Monday, accusing them of betraying her generation by failing to tackle greenhouse gas emissions as announcements by major economies fell far short of expectations.
The Swedish teen’s impassionedspeech was the defining moment of the meeting, called by UN chief Antonio Guterres to reinvigorate the faltering Paris climate agreement.
Ahead of the conference, the UN issued a release saying 66 countries vowed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, along with 10 regions, 102 cities, and scores of businesses.
But pre-summit predictions of new, headline-grabbing commitments, particularly by China and India, failed to match reality, angering environmental groups.
“I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back at school on the other side of the ocean,” said Thunberg, 16, who has become the global face of a growing youth movement against climate inaction that mobilised millions in a worldwide strike on Friday.
“You come to us young people for hope. How dare you?” she thundered, her voice at times breaking with emotion.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not say explicitly whether his country would enhance its commitments made under the Paris agreement, though he did say it was working on doubling its renewable energy capacity.
There was also no new announcement by China, the world’s biggest emitter. Senior foreign policy official Wang Yi spoke instead about the need for multilateralism, taking a veiled swipe at United States President Donald Trump for pulling out of the Paris accord on taking office.
Trump, who announced his intent to withdraw the US from the Paris agreement had been expected to skip the event, but made a brief unscheduled appearance, spending a few minutes in the hall where he applauded Modi’s speech and then left.
Among those absent were President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, under whose leadership the Amazon rainforest is burning at record rates and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whose government has pursued an aggressively pro-coal agenda.
French President Emmanuel Macron invited his counterparts from Chile, Colombia and Bolivia to a meeting where US$500 million (RM 2 billion) in extra funds were pledged by major donors.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, repeated recently announced pledges including US$55 billion for a new innovation and technology package and net zero emissions by 2050.
In his closing comments, Guterres emphasized the positives, highlighting the growing action from the corporate sector, commitments from countries to plant more than 11 billion trees.
But he added, “We need more concrete plans, more ambition from more countries and more businesses”, saying the next critical landmark would come at a conference in Santiago in December.