"The planet is being killed" — Greta Thunberg made a statement at the COP31 climate summit
Kyiv • UNN
At COP31, Greta Thunberg accused governments of inaction in the face of the climate crisis. Under current policies, warming could reach 2.7°C.
"The planet is not dying — it is being killed, and we know exactly who is doing it," Greta Thunberg said. During her first speech in five years at the UN’s annual climate talks, she sharply criticized the world’s governments for failing to prevent an environmental catastrophe, UNN reports, citing The Guardian.
The 23-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who rose to prominence as the leader of the school climate strike movement, delivered a resolute message to participants at the COP31 summit in Antalya, Turkey. This comes as countries continue to fail to take adequate measures to tackle the climate crisis.
"It is being killed by the very people from whom we expected salvation," Thunberg said.
"No one is coming to save us. When states and other institutions threaten our human rights, it is our duty to act decisively, take responsibility, and fight for the rights of every person."
Thunberg, who in recent years has also focused on other issues — including the conflict in Gaza — linked the intensification of global warming to other disasters, including wars, during a joint appearance with activists from Nepal, Canada, and Australia.
"We are heading toward a future with more genocides and ecocides, where our basic rights will be completely disregarded and the things most essential to life will become luxuries," she said.
"At platforms like this one, it is becoming clearer than ever: the situation is completely out of control. The planet is not dying — it is being killed."
The speech took place on the fourth day of the two-week summit, attended by world leaders seeking to assess the state of the climate crisis and the extremely slow progress in addressing it.
In addition
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham — the only leader of a Group of Seven (G7) country to attend the talks — called the record-breaking hot summer in the United Kingdom an "abnormal phenomenon" in his speech.
"The climate crisis is not a threat from the distant future; it is already here, destroying people’s lives and depriving them of their livelihoods around the world," Burnham said. He promised that the United Kingdom would achieve net-zero emissions and also supported a proposal for the further electrification of different countries’ economies. Beth John, climate justice adviser at Oxfam GB, said Burnham’s appearance "sends a positive signal." However, she added: "Presence alone is not enough: a crisis of this scale requires real action, not just signals. The true measure of climate leadership is concrete results, not declarations."
The electrification target is one of the key commitments expected at the talks, which are being jointly chaired by Turkey and Australia. Some countries are insisting that the agreement’s text clearly state that electricity must be generated from clean energy sources.
Activists criticized governments for the excessively slow pace of emissions reductions, as well as for still failing to reach agreement during the talks on phasing out fossil fuels.
According to a report by Climate Action Tracker published on Thursday, under current policies the planet will warm by 2.7°C by the end of the century. This is a catastrophic temperature increase — somewhat higher than the figure the organization forecast last year, and far above the 1.5°C limit agreed upon by world leaders.
On Thursday, there was considerable testimony about the damage caused by the climate crisis. Nepal’s Environment Minister Gita Chaudhary spoke about a devastating landslide caused by glacial melting that occurred in the country in August and claimed the lives of more than 1,500 people.
"We call the catastrophic climate event that we had to experience a ‘mountain tsunami,’" Chaudhary told The Guardian. "We lost people, we lost lives, we lost property. Nepal is working on recovery, reconstruction, and infrastructure development. But communities, culture, and human lives — we cannot bring those back."
In the main conference hall, delegates greeted Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa’s speech, in which he described the environmental consequences of the three-year war with Israel, with thunderous applause, rising from their seats.
"The restrictions imposed by Israel on access to land, water and natural resources have exacerbated Palestine’s climate challenges," Mustafa said. He detailed how the extensive destruction in the Gaza Strip — including water-supply and sewage systems and agricultural land — had heightened environmental risks and threats to public health.
Turkey, which is hosting the COP31 conference, has repeatedly accused Israel of genocide and refused to invite the country’s leadership to Antalya. Israel rejects the genocide allegations and insists that it is waging a lawful war to ensure its own security.
Another country that is officially unrepresented at the talks is the United States; it did not send a delegation. Donald Trump withdrew the country from the international climate-agreement system, called climate science a "hoax" and said he would not allow new wind turbines to be installed.
This position drew sharp criticism from former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who arrived in Turkey together with 20 Democratic members of Congress and two state governors. "He is the biggest loser we have seen in a long time on all these issues," Kerry said of Trump in response to a question from a Guardian journalist.
The Democrats’ convincing victory in the midterm elections has raised hopes at COP that the United States will rejoin efforts to address the climate crisis. However, California Governor Gavin Newsom warned that no fundamental changes in climate policy should be expected during the final two years of Trump’s presidency.
"I don’t want to sugarcoat reality and create illusions about what this will mean," Newsom said on Thursday. "I don’t think they will do anything other than double down on their efforts in the same direction."