‘Blah, blah, blah’ – young climate activists call out governments for their climate inaction

“Build back better. Blah, blah, blah. Green economy. Blah blah blah. Net-zero by 2050. Blah, blah, blah. This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words that sound great but so far have not led to action. Our hopes and ambitions drown in their empty promises”, said Greta Thunberg during the opening sessions of the Youth4Climate event in Milan. The Italian government hosted the event, which welcomed 400 young climate activists ahead of the COP26 climate summit set to take place in late October in Glasgow.

The 18-year-old activist, who became famous for launching the #FridaysForFuture protests, also confronted the conference’s organisers for cherry-picking the activists they chose to involve in the decision-making process.

“World leaders invite carefully chosen young people to meetings like this to pretend they listen to us. But they clearly don’t listen to us. Emissions are still rising. Science doesn’t lie,” she also said.

Her words were echoed by many other young climate activists who took part in the event.

“Money speaks, and if rich nations don’t restructure debt for poor nations and commit $500 billion for climate action from 2020-2024, there’s no point in wasting time at these meetings,” said Argentinian activist Oscar Soria. “Enough promises, it’s time to show us the money”, added Vanessa Nakate of Fridays for Future Uganda.

Italy’s Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani said in response that he hopes that “aside from protesting, which is extremely useful”, the young activists “will also help us identify new visionary solutions. This is what we expect from you”.

A divisive figure, Cingolani is known for saying, among other things, that “ideological activists are worse than the climate catastrophe we’re heading towards” and that “the ecological transition could turn into bloodshed”.

(Viola Stefanello | EURACTIV.it)