Greta Thunberg accuses Davos billionaires of ‘fuelling planetary destruction’ as she arrives at Swiss forum
- A few days after being arrested by German authorities, Thunberg arrived in Davos
- His inflammatory comments criticize wealthy forum participants
- Thunberg stresses the need to hear more voices from those affected by climate change
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg accused attendees of the World Economic Forum in Davos of ‘fueling the destruction of the planet’ as she arrived at the event in the Swiss Alps.
Along with other climate activists, Greta returns to Davos to continue her battle against fossil fuels at the annual forum during a panel that debated how the world can rapidly accelerate the transition to clean energy.
It comes shortly after she was released from detention following her arrest while protesting a coal mine expansion in Germany.
Thunberg, famous for his direct and brutal approach, has
“We are in Davos right now where (there are) basically the people who are mainly fueling the destruction of the planet,” she said, adding: “The people who are at the very heart of the climate crisis, the people who invest in fossil fuels, etc., and yet these are the people we seem to rely on to solve our problems.
She also insisted that we should listen to those who are really affected by the climate crisis, those on the front lines.
The 20-year-old Swede caused a stir when she attended the forum as a teenager in January 2020, warning that ‘our house is still on fire’ and complaining that her requests had been ‘completely ignored’.
Then-US President Donald Trump used his speech at the same forum to denounce “the eternal doomsayers” as Thunberg watched from the audience.
This week, she and fellow activists Helena Gualinga of Ecuador, Vanessa Nakate of Uganda and Luisa Neubauer of Germany launched an online petition demanding that energy companies stop all new oil extraction, gas or coal – under penalty of legal proceedings. More than 870,000 people had signed the petition by Wednesday evening.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg from Sweden, speaking alongside (L-R) Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, and climate activists Luise Neubauer from Germany, Helena Gualinga from Ecuador , Vanessa Nakate from Uganda
The four activists will be among the panelists to discuss with Birol on Thursday calls to end new investments in fossil fuels and what should be done to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, organizers said.
The IEA, which advises governments, said in a report in October that the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was prompting changes that could accelerate the transition to a “more sustainable and secure energy system”. .
Thunberg was among a group of people taken by police on Tuesday to a protest near the German village of Luetzerath, which is being razed to make way for a coal mine expansion. They have not been officially arrested.
Thunberg only arrived in Davos shortly after being released by German police after protesting against the expansion of a coal mine in Germany.
His actions were hailed in Davos by former US Vice President Al Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change.
“I agree with his efforts to stop this coal mine,” Gore told a panel discussion on global warming, adding that young people around the world are despairing of leaders’ efforts to tackle the climate crisis. “We are not winning” the fight against global warming, he added.
Climate change is a major topic at the World Economic Forum, where companies and governments have come under pressure to do more to ensure the world meets the increasingly elusive goal of limiting warming to 1.5° vs.
