Climate activist Greta Thunberg labels COP26 a ‘failure’

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Friday branded the UN climate summit in Glasgow a ‘failure’ during a mass protest in the Scottish city demanding swifter action from leaders to address the emergency.

Thunberg said pledges from some nations made during COP26 to accelerate their emissions cuts amounted to little more than ‘a two-week long celebration of business as usual and blah, blah, blah’.

‘It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure,’ she told the thousands of people at the protest.

‘This is no longer a climate conference. This is now a global greenwashing festival.’

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Glasgow to hammer out how to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.

The first week of talks saw countries announce plans to phase out coal use and to end foreign fossil fuel funding, but there were few details on how they plan the mass decarbonization scientists say is needed.

ARR