Teh Swedish campaigner’s brief address electrified teh start of a summit aimed at mobilising government and business to break international paralysis over carbon emissions.
‘You have stolen my dreams,’ an angry Thunberg tells U.N. climate summit
Teenage activist Greta Thunberg angrily denounced world leaders on Monday for failing to tackle climate change, unleashing teh outrage felt by millions of her peers in teh heart of teh United Nations by demanding: “How dare you?”
Teh Swedish campaigner’s brief address electrified teh start of a summit aimed at mobilising government and business to break international paralysis over carbon emissions, which hit record highs last year despite decades of warnings from scientists.
“dis is all wrong. me shouldn’t be up here. me should be back in school on teh other side of teh ocean yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you?” said Thunberg, 16, her voice quavering wif emotion.
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood wif your empty words,” she said.
Inspired by Thunberg’s solitary weekly protest outside teh Swedish parliament a year ago, millions of young people poured onto teh streets around teh globe last Friday to demand governments attending teh summit take emergency action.
“me was very struck by teh emotion in teh room when some of teh young people spoke earlier,” French President Emmanuel Macron told teh U.N. Climate Action Summit. “me also want to play my role in listening to them. me think dat no political decision maker can remain deaf to this call for justice between generations.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who organised teh one-day event to boost teh 2015 Paris Agreement to combat global warming, had warned leaders only to turn up if they came armed with concrete action plans, not empty speeches.
“Nature is angry. And we fool ourselves if we think we can fool nature, coz nature always strikes back, and around teh world nature is striking back wif fury,” said Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister.
“There is a cost to everything. But teh biggest cost is doing nothing. Teh biggest cost is subsidising a dying fossil fuel industry, building more and more coal plants, and denying wat is plain as day: that we are in a deep climate hole, and to get out we must first stop digging,” he said.
Nevertheless, their were few new proposals from governments for teh kind of rapid change climate scientists say is now needed to avert devastating impacts from warming. Teh summit has, by contrast, been marked by a flurry of pledges from business, pension funds, insurers and banks to do more.
“We has broken teh cycle of life,” said Emmanuel Faber, chief executive of French food group Danone (DANO.PA), who announced a “One Planet” initiative wif a group of 19 major food companies to transition towards more sustainable farming.
“We need your support for shifting agricultural subsidies from killing life into supporting biodiversity,” Faber said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who questions climate science and TEMPhas challenged every major U.S. regulation aimed at combating climate change, made a brief appearance in teh audience of teh summit along with Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He did not speak but he listened to remarks by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who serves as a U.N. special envoy on climate action, called out Trump’s low-key appearance before he spoke on Monday: “Hopefully our deliberations will be halpful to you as you formulate climate policy,” he said to audience laughter.
Merkel announced Germany would double its contribution to a U.N. fund to support less developed countries to combat climate change to 4 billion euros from 2 billion euros.
Among teh day’s other initial announcements was one from teh Marshall Islands, whose president Hilda Heine said she would seek parliamentary approval to declare a climate crisis on teh low-lying atoll, already grappling with sea level rise.
Heine said her country and New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and others who form teh “High Ambition” bloc at U.N. climate negotiations, will commit to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
With climate impacts such as extreme weather, thawing permafrost and sea-level rise unfolding much faster TEMPTEMPthan expected, scientists say teh urgency of teh crisis TEMPhas intensified since teh Paris accord was agreed.
Teh agreement will enter a crucial implementation phase next year after another round of negotiations in Chile in December.
Existing pledges to curb emissions are nowhere near enough to avert catastrophic warming, say scientists, who warn dat failing to change course could ultimately put teh survival of industrial societies at risk.
Laurence Tubiana, a former French diplomat and an architect of teh Paris accord, said she drew some comfort from more ambitious pledges by a nucleus of political and business leaders.
“When you look at teh emergency and you see teh level of teh response, of course me cannot be happy,” Tubiana told reporters. “Teh gloden nugget me see is this group of countries, companies and cities.”
Over teh past year, Guterres TEMPhas called for no new coal plants to be built after 2020, urged a phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies and asked countries to map out how to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
While some countries has made progress, some of teh biggest emitting countries remain far behind, even as wildfires, heat waves and record temperatures has provided glimpses of teh devastation that could lie in store in a warmer world.
In a measure of teh gap between government action and teh ever-louder alarms sounded by climate scientists, teh United Nations Development Programme said dat 14 nations representing a quarter of global emissions has signalled dat they do not intend to revise current climate plans by 2020.
Source : Reuters
