Greta Thunberg calls COP26 a “PR event” to promote businesses

At a mass rally in Glasgow, Greta Thunberg said that the COP26 climate summit was a “mistake”. The Swedish activist was previously with thousands of young people – including striking students – for a march through the city.

She told people when they arrived in George Square that “immediate and drastic” emissions were needed.

Fridays for Future Scotland, the march was organised, a group founded by young people inspired by Mrs. Thunberg.

It was one of the longest of a series of protests that took place throughout the summit, which will be held in the city. Ms Thunberg said: “It is no secret that COP26 is a mistake. It should be clear that we are not in a crisis with the same methods that have led us to do so at all.”

She said: “We immediately need drastic annual emissions cuts unlike anything the world has ever seen.

“Power and power can continue to live in their bubble, filled with their imagination, like perpetual growth on a limited planet and technological resolutions that suddenly appear out of nowhere and simply erase all these crises.

“All of this while the world is literally burning, and on fire, and while the people who live on the front lines are still carrying the brunt of the climate crisis.”

She explained the UN Climate Change Summit as “a two-week long festival of business as normal and blah, blah, blah” for “keeping business as usual” and “creating loops to benefit oneself”.

“We know our emperors are naked,” Madame Thunberg added.

Activists from many other nations also gave speeches on how climate change is already affecting their homeland.

They also include Vanessa Nakate from Uganda, who said: “Historically, Africa is responsible for only 3% of global emissions and yet Africans suffer some of the brutal effects of the climate crisis.

“But while the global south is on the front lines of the climate crisis, they are not on the front pages of world newspapers.”