DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Thursday criticized corporate bigwigs meeting in Davos, Switzerland, for “fueling the destruction of the planet” by investing in fossil fuels. and prioritize short-term gains over people affected by the climate crisis.
Thunberg was joined by prominent young activists Vanessa Nakate, Helena Gualinga and Luisa Neubauer in a roundtable discussion with the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
Nakate, who choked at one point, said that “the leaders are playing” with the future of the people.
People in the parts of the world most affected by climate change they are “hanging on for dear life and trying to survive another day, another week, another hour, another minute,” he said.
Gualinga, an Ecuadorian indigenous activist, said the world is “taking a really dangerous path.”
The activists brought a “cease and desist” letter calling on the heads of fossil fuel companies to halt all new oil and natural gas projects, signed by nearly 900,000 people. Scientists say new fossil fuel projects cannot be built if the world wants to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in line with climate goals set in Paris in 2015.
Nakate added that current levels of warming, which have hit 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 F), mean “it’s already hell for many communities across the African continent, across the Global South” facing drought. extreme, heat and flood.
Activists have increasingly criticized the lack of action by governments and big corporations in recent years.
Meanwhile, Birol said he had “legitimate optimism” that the world would move away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy. He pointed out that the US Inflation Reduction Act. The nearly $375 billion in climate incentives would be transformative for renewable energy in the country.
But he added that “the problem is not being fast enough to meet our climate goals.”
When International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva was asked what she would change to accelerate the net-zero transition, she said she would lock the US, China, India and the EU in one room and close the door.
“Let them out after they sign in blood a pledge to work together to save the planet,” he said to applause from the audience at a Davos discussion on green finance.
Climate and sustainability have increasingly been the main topics of the elite conclave in Davos, although it has faced criticism for being a forum for conversation that results in little direct action. This year, several sessions focused on the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy along with panels on the global economic slowdown, food insecurity, and technological innovation.
The event kicked off with dozens of climate activists, some in clown makeup, braving Sunday’s snowfall to wave banners and chant slogans at the end of Davos’ Promenade.
“The changes we need are not very likely to come from within (from the Davos meeting), rather I think they will come from the bottom up,” Thunberg said. “Without massive public pressure from the outside, at least in my experience, these people will go as far as they 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 benefit.”
Thunberg did not attend the last UN climate conferenceor COP, in Egypt last year, but Nakate, Neubauer and Gualinga participated in protests and sessions at the event.
“It should be the ones on the front lines and not the privileged people like me” speaking to leaders in high-level meetings, Thunberg said.
The conference has been criticized in recent days for installing the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. as its chairman. for this year’s event.
“It just sends this message that he doesn’t really take it seriously,” Gualinga said.
But US climate envoy John Kerry The Associated Press backing the decision, citing Sultan al-Jaber’s work on renewable energy projects.
“I think Dr. Sultan al-Jaber is an excellent choice because he is the head of the company. That company knows they need to make the transition,” Kerry said Sunday after attending an energy conference in Dubai. “He knows this, and the leadership of the United Arab Emirates is committed to the transition.”
Thunberg arrived in Davos from Germany, where she took part in a demonstration in a town being cleared for a coal mine expansion. His boots were still covered in mud from the protest. She and several other high-profile activists were taken away by city police on Tuesday..
“The level of action, frustration and anger that there is, and you could even say despair to me is a sign of what we need not just in Germany but around the world,” Germany’s climate envoy told the AP on Wednesday. Jennifer Morgan.
Morgan said Davos attendees “are the main decision makers and if they really understood the 1.5 degree target and took the necessary action, it would make a big difference.”
But he acknowledged that while they have a role, “they are not the answer.”
Former US Vice President Al Gore expressed his solidarity with the young activists and said he agreed with Thunberg’s actions in Germany.
Gore said Wednesday in Davos that there is a divide “between those old enough to be in positions of power and the youth of this world.” He added that climate activists “have come to the conclusion that people in authority are not doing their job.”
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AP writers Kelvin Chan and Dana Beltaji in London and Jamey Keaten and Markus Schreiber in Davos contributed.
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Follow AP coverage of the World Economic Forum meeting at https://apnews.com/hub/world-economic-forum and climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.
