Greta Thunberg has said the COP26 summit is no longer about climate change but a two-week celebration of the usual ‘blah, blah, blah’ from politicians.
The 18-year-old campaigner delivered a passionate speech to thousands of youth activists in Glasgow’s George Square on Friday afternoon.
It followed a march, organised by Fridays for Future Scotland, with protestors walking from Kelvingrove Park to the city centre location while demanding urgent action rather than empty promises.
Thunberg, who arrived in Glasgow last weekend after travelling from Sweden to support climate change protests during the COP26 summit, said world leaders can no longer ignore the environmental disaster.
Greta told the rally: "The voices of future generations are drowning in their greenwash and empty words and promises.
“But the facts do not lie. And we know that our emperors are naked."
The Swedish activist said "immediate, drastic, annual emission cuts unlike anything the world has ever seen" are needed to deal with climate change.
She added: "And the question we must now ask ourselves is, what is it that we are fighting for? Are we fighting to save ourselves and the living planet?
“Or are we fighting to maintain business as usual? Only to say that we can have both. But the harsh truth is that that is not possible in practice.
"The people in power can continue to live in their bubble filled with their fantasies, like eternal growth on a finite planet and technological solutions that will suddenly appear seemingly out of nowhere and will erase all of these crises just like that.
"All this while the world is literally burning, on fire, and while the people living on the front lines are still bearing the brunt of the climate crisis."
Thunberg said the Cop26 conference is actually a two-week celebration of "business as usual and blah blah blah".
She told the rally: "This is no longer a climate conference. This is now a global north greenwash festival. A two-week festival of business as usual and blah blah blah.
"Some people say that we are being too radical. But the truth is that they are the ones who are radical. Fighting to save our life support systems isn't radical at all.
"Believing that our civilisation as we know it can survive a 2.7 degree or a three degree hotter world, on the other hand, is not only extremely radical, it's pure madness."
She continued: "Out here, we speak the truth. The people of power are obviously scared of the truth. Yet no matter how hard they try, they cannot escape from it.
"They cannot ignore the scientific consensus and above all, they cannot ignore us, the people, including their own children.
"They cannot ignore our screams as we reclaim our power. We are tired of their blah blah blah. Our leaders are not leading.
"This is what leadership looks like."
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