Climate activist Greta Thunberg on Thursday accused political and business leaders of placing a higher value on their own futures and profits rather than their countries and the planet.
The 20-year-old Swede hit out at the elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“We are right now in Davos where basically the people who are mostly fuelling the destruction of the planet, the people who are at the very core of the climate crisis, the people who are investing in fossil fuels etcetera, etcetera and yet somehow these are the people that we seem to rely on solving our problems,” Thunberg said.
“They have proven time and time again that they are not prioritizing that. They are prioritizing self-greed, corporate greed and short-term economic profits above people and above planet.
“These people are going to go as far as they possibly can as long as they can get away with it. They will continue to invest in fossil fuels, they will continue to throw people under the bus for their own gain,” she added.
Thunberg was released by police earlier this week after she was detained with other activists for protesting against the expansion of a coal mine in the village of Lützerath in Germany.
Alongside Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Thunberg took part in a seminar with fellow campaigners Vanessa Nakate, Helena Gualinga and Luisa Neubauer.
Before arriving in Davos, they composed an open letter to the chief executives of fossil fuel companies through the non-profit website Avaaz urging them to immediately stop opening new oil, gas or coal extraction sites.
Knowledge
“We know that Big Oil knew for decades that fossil fuels cause catastrophic climate change, misled the public about climate science and risks [and] deceived politicians with disinformation sowing doubt and causing delay,” the letter says.
It adds that fossil fuel executives must end these activities as they are in direct violation to human rights to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
“We don’t see the sense of urgency reflected in action,” Gualinga, an Indigenous youth climate advocate from Ecuador told the seminar.
“Indigenous communities, Indigenous peoples, youth, scientists, we have all been pointing towards a direction [but] the oil industry is not going there, the world leaders are not going there,” she added.
The fossil fuel industry has tried to highlight the importance of energy security amid calls for a transition to renewables.
Asked why new fossil fuel production projects were going ahead despite opposition from both the IEA and climate campaigners, Birol said: “The issue is we have to keep the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
"If it goes above that, the rather fragile equilibrium of our planet will be distorted — we will all be in trouble.
“We need to get energy from clean carbon-free form energy sources and to do that, the magic word is investment.”
Birol said the world currently invests about 1.5 trillion euros in clean energy, but this needs to increase to 4 trillion in order to be in line with climate targets.
“If we do that … then we don’t need any more coal, we don’t need any more oil and gas. [We don’t need any] new investments there, but the point of departure is making clean energy investments and having a clean, secure energy future for all,” Birol added.
