Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres blasted fossil fuel companies for "killing our planet".
Climate activist Greta Thunberg has blasted the annual COP climate summit as being hypocritical and "full of lobbyists".
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Attending the talks for the first time since 2021, she urged leaders to put people and the planet ahead of profits and power.
The two-week COP31 talks kicked off in Turkey earlier this week with governments under pressure to tackle climate change after a year of searing heatwaves and wildfires in Europe, and deadly floods in Nepal.
“It’s a hypocrisy every year that the host countries are given an opportunity to whitewash themselves and we know that these negotiations are filled with lobbyists, paid by the very destructive industries which are benefiting from our extremely violent status quo,” Thunberg said as she arrived. “Our political and economic systems that have become incompatible with human nature.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also spoke about these "very destructive industries" while addressing the conference: "Fossil fuel interests keep making a killing, while killing our planet," Guterres said, urging governments to tax the windfall profits of oil companies.
"Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs, but that won't happen on its own. The dinosaurs did not have a lobby, but fossil fuels do," he said.
'Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs'
"The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us," Guterres told dozens of world leaders assembled at a sprawling expo centre in the Mediterranean city of Antalya.
But few major breakthroughs are anticipated at the COP31 negotiations, which run until 20 November, as countries grapple with an oil price shock and geopolitical tensions fuelled by the US war with Iran and Russia's war in Ukraine.
Since agreeing in 2023 for the first time to transition away from fossil fuels - the main driver of climate change - nations have struggled to advance that goal at the annual COP conferences.
"Fossil fuel interests keep making a killing, while killing our planet," Guterres said, urging governments to tax the windfall profits of oil companies.
"Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs, but that won't happen on its own. The dinosaurs did not have a lobby, but fossil fuels do," he said.
"Their strategy is simple: Distort the science. Delay the policy. Delay the action. Delay the accountability. It's time to kick the habit – and end the fossil fuel addiction," he said to applause.
Guterres, who has made the fight against climate change a central issue since taking office in 2017, is attending his last COP before his term ends in December.
Greta Thunberg: 'Everything and everyone we love is at stake'
Electrification and waste reduction are set to be key focus points of this year's negotiations, which run until 20 November. Many EU countries are expected to advocate for the role of renewables and the transition away from fossil fuels, however the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Spain have all been criticised for not attending the Leaders' Summit which runs today and tomorrow.
COP31 co-hosts Turkey and Australia are promoting renewable energy and rooftop solar installations, but both still rely heavily on fossil fuels, especially coal, to generate electricity. Previous hosts, including Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan, are major oil producers.
Climate change is “threatening everything,” Thunberg said, warning that “everything and everyone we love is at stake.”
“We should act to protect and benefit people rather than constantly sacrificing the global majority and the very planet we are all living on, for a fortunate few to keep making unimaginable profits and maintaining geopolitical power,” she said.
Thunberg blasts annual climate talks
This is the first climate summit Thunberg has attended since the 2021 talks in Glasgow, Scotland, where she dismissed world leaders’ promises as “blah, blah, blah.”
She rose to prominence in 2018 when, aged 15, she began a solitary 'School Strike for Climate' outside the Swedish Parliament. In 2022, she published 'The Climate Book', outlining actions to address the climate crisis.
She has won multiple awards and advocated for other causes, including the Free Palestine movement. Last year, she was arrested in London while supporting hunger-striking pro-Palestinian activists. More recently, she supported French students protesting for more school resources.
In 2024, she joined a protest in Georgia against Azerbaijan’s hosting of COP29.
A key goal for Turkey is global electrification: shifting sectors such as transportation, buildings and heavy industry away from fossil fuels and toward electricity. Turkey wants electricity, preferably generated from renewable sources such as solar and wind, to account for 35 per cent of global energy consumption by 2035, up from 23 per cent today.
“We have to take the victories we have, of course, because we are so desperate in this situation that we have to take all the positive signs we can get to save as much as we can still save,” said Thunberg, who is expected to spend several days at COP31.
Youth activists rally around Thunberg
Thunberg's arrival at the conference created excitement among many youth climate activists.
“In this time of heightened geopolitical tensions, I hope that Greta’s presence here reminds us of why we started this work in the first place: to push for meaningful change, hold decision-makers accountable, and work towards a better future for all of humanity,” said Amber Turner, a 26-year-old fellow with the Alliance of Small Island States.
“Worsening climate change impacts make it challenging for young people to be sure of a safe and thriving future,” Turner added.
Protests at COP31 demanded more climate finance and criticised growing interest in nuclear energy.
“The presence of such a headline climate activist at one of the world’s biggest conferences on climate is symbolic, and I hope that it will put pressure on the COP itself to deliver real action and implementation,” said Kamori Osthananda, a youth negotiator with Thailand’s COP delegation.
Qiyun Woo, a youth environmentalist from Singapore, said Thunberg's “powerful” presence "adds to calls from a generation that inherits the consequences of these negotiations.”
“Besides her, there are many youth activists from around the world who are also on the ground who are actively fighting for their communities, home and collective future,” she said.
