Teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg has said at the UN climate talks in Madrid that the global school strikes for climate done in the last year haven’t achieved anything as gas emissions continue increasing.
Thousands of youngsters were expected to gather at the UN climate conference and on the streets of the Spanish capital on Friday to protest against the insufficient progress in climate change tackling.
4 years after the Paris accord has been signed, greenhouse emissions have increased by 4 percent and the talks aren’t expected to make new commitments on carbon from its biggest emitters in the world.
Thunberg, who protested on her own in Sweden in 2017, is now traveling worldwide and speaking about climate change and has a large number of supporters.
She has spoke at a press conference prior to a march through Madrid.
No Effective Measures for Climate Change
The young activist said that she’s just an activist and that there’s need for more people like her. However, she claims a lot of people are scared from change and they try to silence those who’re not.
She expressed her hopes for the UN negotiations; however, she doubted that the governments have gotten the message clearly and also warned that we can’t afford to continue doing nothing.
She hopes that COP25 achieves something concrete and increase the awareness among the public and that leaders and powerful people understand the emergency of climate change, which they don’t seem to be doing now, emphasized Thunberg.
Even with the strikes continuing, they would stop if the governments made the necessary promises and actions.
She claims that this couldn’t continue in the same manner- it’s not sustainable for that many children to skip school; however, people are suffering and dying and the time is now or never.
The march was scheduled with the protests and climate strikes worldwide. In the US, Jane Fonda and Bernie Sanders were among those planning to attend.
The conference center was filled with schoolchildren and their parents, a lot of them with babies in prams that were kept in a different room from where the negotiators were discussing a draft text that would make the Paris agreement clearer.
What Do other Climate Change ‘Warriors’ Say?
According to a speaker for the Pacific Climate Warriors, Brianna Fruean from Samoa, world leaders need to be aware that people like her are watching them. The text we write today, is what our future will be, she noted.
Jimmy Fenelon, national coordinator of the Caribbean Youth Environmental Network in Haiti said ‘I had typhoid. I’ve had malaria. My grandmother died from cholera. I know what I’m talking about. We need to raise the awareness among young people. We can get them to work together and send a strong message.’
For activist Miguel van der Velden, these things aren’t games and are getting worse. They’re hurting millions of people and he came on the march in hope to work together.
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