Shobhit Gupta | Edited by Chandrashekar Srinivasan
A video of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg – in which she responds to a journalist’s question on global warming – has taken the internet by storm. In a clip shared by Stockholm University professor Christian Christensen, the 20-year-old activist is asked, “Greta, it’s been a quite cold in Davos (Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum is being held)… when can I expect some global warming?” Greta’s response was a chuckle that rolled into a guffaw.
Greta Thunberg and 30 other climate activists braved sub-zero temperatures at Davos to call for climate justice as the WEF concluded. Protesters chanted ‘What do we want? Climate justice. When do we want it? Now’ as Thunberg held up a sign saying ‘Keep it in the ground’.
On Thursday Thunberg met with Fatih Birol, chief of the International Energy Agency, on the side-lines of the WEF and targeted corporate groups over inaction on climate change. Leaders at Davos are ‘fuelling the destruction of the planet’ by continuing to invest in fossil fuels and prioritising short-term profits over people affected by the climate crisis, Thunberg said.
Birol – whose agency makes policy recommendations – insisted the transition to net zero – completely negating greenhouse gases produced by human activity – had to include a mix of stakeholders. Thunberg, however, remained against all new oil, gas and coal developments.
Read here: Germany ‘really embarrassing itself’: What made Greta Thunberg say this
Greta Thunberg and her fellow activists have presented a ‘cease and desist’ notice to oil and gas executives, which protesters brandished during the Friday demonstration.
Earlier this week, before she travelled to Davos and the meeting with Birol, Thunberg was detained by police in Germany during a demonstration against the expansion of a coal mine.
“… I was part of a group that peacefully protested the expansion of a coal mine in Germany. We were kettled by police and then detained but were let go later that evening. Climate protection is not a crime,” she tweeted.
Thunberg also attended the Davos meet in January 2020, when she challenged world leaders to act on climate change, saying ‘our house is still on fire’.