Thunberg criticises COP31 and urges leaders to prioritise people and planet
The Swedish activist accused climate summit hosts of using the talks to improve their image as young campaigners in Antalya called for more climate finance.
By Ricardo Brooks ·
Greta Thunberg has criticised the United Nations climate negotiations as hypocritical, calling on world leaders to place the welfare of people and the planet above financial gain and political power. The Swedish climate activist spoke on Tuesday after arriving at COP31 in Antalya, a resort city in Turkiye.
Thunberg accused countries hosting the annual conferences of using them to whitewash their reputations. She also condemned the presence of lobbyists funded by industries that benefit from the existing political and economic order. Those systems, she argued, have become incompatible with human nature. Describing the scale of the climate threat, she warned that “everything and everyone we love is at stake”.
The summit comes after a year marked by deadly climate-related events, including floods and heatwaves, as well as a further energy shock resulting from the US-Israel war on Iran. Against that backdrop, Thunberg urged leaders to protect people rather than sacrifice the global majority and the planet so that a small number could continue accumulating profits and preserving geopolitical influence.
Turkiye and Australia, the conference’s co-hosts, are advocating renewable energy and rooftop solar installations. Both countries nevertheless remain heavily dependent on fossil fuels, particularly coal, for electricity generation. Earlier hosts Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan are all significant oil producers.
For Thunberg, Antalya marks a return to the climate summit after her last appearance at the 2021 negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland. There, she characterised leaders’ pledges as “blah, blah, blah”. She first attracted widespread attention in 2018, aged 15, by holding a solitary school climate strike outside Sweden’s parliament.
Her campaigning has since extended to other causes. She has supported the Free Palestine movement and, more recently, French students seeking additional resources for schools. At COP31, her arrival has generated enthusiasm among many young climate activists who are pressing for greater climate finance.
Amber Turner, a 26-year-old fellow with the Alliance of Small Island States, told The Associated Press that she hoped Thunberg’s attendance would remind campaigners of their original purpose: securing meaningful change, holding decision-makers accountable and pursuing a better future for humanity. Singaporean youth environmentalist Qiyun Woo described Thunberg’s presence as “powerful”, saying it reinforced demands from a generation that would inherit the consequences of the negotiations.
The Antalya conference is scheduled to continue until November 20. The next summit, COP32, is set to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, in November 2027.
