Greta Thunberg and fellow youth campaigners struck a sceptical tone for this week’s climate talks in Italy, saying much has been promised but little done to tackle heating in almost three decades since the landmark Earth Summit.
Fears that global climate change is worsening grew after a UN report in August warned things was dangerously on the brink of spiralling out of control, with the planet bound to face further disruptions for generations to return .“Thirty years of blah, blah, blah,” Thunberg told the opening session of a Youth4Climate event on Tuesday.
“Thirty years of blah, blah, blah,” Thunberg told the opening session of a Youth4Climate event on Tuesday.
housands of young activists have converged on Milan in the week with some 400, from about 190 countries, thanks to engaging with policymakers to thrash out proposals for possible solutions.
“So-called leaders have cherry-picked children to meetings like this to pretend they’re taking note of us, but they’re not listening,” Thunberg said.
“There isn’t any planet B … Change is not only possible but necessary, but not if we continue like we’ve until today.”
The youth activists, who fought to urge global climate change to the highest of the worldwide agenda years after leaders at the 1992 Rio Summit in Brazil pledged to tackle environmental problems, are being challenged to assist come up with the solutions before the COP26 United Nations summit in November.
Their proposals are going to be vetted by climate and energy ministers gathering at an equivalent venue for his or her pre-COP26 meeting, and a few will find their thanks to the Glasgow summit.
The meetings come as soaring energy prices on world markets stoke fears of a well-liked backlash against climate reform.
The UN COP26 conference aims to secure more ambitious climate action from the nearly 200 countries, who signed the 2015 Paris Agreement and agreed to undertake to limit human-caused heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Young people got to start getting involved within the actual negotiations,” said Rose Kobusinge, a youth delegate from Uganda. “We want 1.5 (degrees) and that we won’t transcend that.”
‘MONEY SPEAKS’
At their pre-COP26 summit, which starts on Thursday, some 50 climate ministers will tackle hurdles, including differing views on the pace of transition and who pays for it.
While new energy and funding pledges from the US and China have left negotiators more upbeat, many G20 countries, including major polluters like China and India, are yet to deliver updates of their short-term climate action plans.
“Now is that the time for leaders of the most important economies and therefore the biggest greenhouse emission emitters to form much bolder commitments,” Britain’s COP26 President Alok Sharma, said during a video message on Tuesday.
Climate activists are demanding policymakers match rhetoric with action and stump up the billions of dollars needed to wean the planet off fossil fuels to cleaner energy during a year that has seen record-breaking heatwaves, floods and fires.
Money speaks, and if rich nations don’t restructure debt for poor nations and commit $500 billion for climate action from 2020-2024, there’s no point in dalliance at these meetings,” Oscar Soria of the US-based activist network Avaaz said.
Wealthy nations, who pledged a decade ago to mobilize $100 billion a year to assist vulnerable countries adapt and transition to cleaner energy, are still in need of their 2020 goal.
“It was promised by 2020 and that we are still waiting,” Vanessa Nakata, a youth delegate from Uganda, said.