Thunberg: “Massive public pressure” is needed to galvanize climate fight

BRUSSELS, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Activist Greta Thunberg said she plans to travel to this year’s global climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, after all on Monday Aug 9 (Reuters) – Calling for “massive” pressure to fight climate change.

The grand UN conference will test countries’ ambition to limit global warming, which a landmark scientific report warned on Monday was dangerously close to escalating beyond country-agreed limits. Read more

“I hope this can be a wake-up call, in any way it can,” Thunberg said of the report in an interview with Reuters.

“When these extreme weather events happen, many say, what will it take for the people in power to start taking action? What are they waiting for? And it will take a lot of things, but most importantly, it will take massive pressure from the public and massive media pressure, ”she said.

The UN report came just three months before the Glasgow conference in November.

Thunberg, who rallied young people to protest global climate action, initially said she would skip the event out of fears that the uneven rollout of COVID-19 vaccines across the world would leave some countries unable to attend it safely. Read more

But Britain’s offer in June to vaccinate delegates allays some of that concern, the 18-year-old Swedish activist said.

“I already said I wouldn’t go if it wasn’t fair,” Thunberg said. “But now they’re saying they’re going to vaccinate all the delegates that go there. If this is considered fair and safe, then I hope to attend.”

With wildfires ravaging Greece and Turkey this week, just weeks after deadly floods swept through China and Germany and heat waves ravaged the United States, Thunberg said the People’s awareness of climate change was increasing, but “very slowly”.

But she said world leaders ignored previous warnings from scientists about climate change and did not expect them to match the words and deeds in response to the latest UN report.

“I expect them to come out and make big speeches, or press releases, or social media posts where they say the climate crisis is very important and we are doing all we can.” , Thunberg said.

“In the current state of things, nothing changes. The only thing that changes is the climate.

Reporting by Kate Abnett; edited by Katy Daigle and Giles Elgood

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