Climate activist Thunberg hits out at 'self-interested elite' at Davos

Paul Myers
Thu, 19 January 2023 

REUTERS - WOLFGANG RATTAY


Climate activist Greta Thunberg on Thursday accused political and business leaders of placing a higher value on their own futures and profits rather than their countries and the planet.

The 20-year-old Swede hit out at the elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“We are right now in Davos where basically the people who are mostly fuelling the destruction of the planet, the people who are at the very core of the climate crisis, the people who are investing in fossil fuels etcetera, etcetera and yet somehow these are the people that we seem to rely on solving our problems,” Thunberg said.

“They have proven time and time again that they are not prioritizing that. They are prioritizing self-greed, corporate greed and short-term economic profits above people and above planet.

“These people are going to go as far as they possibly can as long as they can get away with it. They will continue to invest in fossil fuels, they will continue to throw people under the bus for their own gain,” she added.

Thunberg was released by police earlier this week after she was detained with other activists for protesting against the expansion of a coal mine in the village of Lützerath in Germany.

Alongside Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Thunberg took part in a seminar with fellow campaigners Vanessa Nakate, Helena Gualinga and Luisa Neubauer.

“We don’t see the sense of urgency reflected in action,” Gualinga, an Indigenous youth climate advocate from Ecuador told the seminar.