Activist Greta Thunberg to skip ‘greenwashing’ climate summit

Greta Thunberg (Agence France-Presse)

LONDON — Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said on Sunday she would skip this month’s COP27 talks in Egypt, slamming the global summit as a forum for “greenwashing.”

“I’m not going to COP27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is extremely limited,” she said during a question and answer at the launch of her latest book at London’s Southbank Centre.

The 19-year-old activist had previously expressed solidarity on Twitter with “prisoners of conscience” being held in Egypt ahead of the United Nations’ 27th conference on climate, opening in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on Nov. 6.

‘Educational’ book

“The COPs are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing,” she said, adding that the conferences “are not really meant to change the whole system” but instead encourage gradual progress.

“So as it is, the COPs are not really working, unless of course, we use them as an opportunity to mobilize.”

Meanwhile, Thunberg’s “The Climate Book” was released on Thursday. She said she wanted it to “be educational, which is a bit ironic since my thing is school strikes”—referring to her protests in front of the Swedish parliament starting in 2018.

The book includes about 100 contributions from various experts, including economist Thomas Piketty, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and writer Naomi Klein.

Thunberg’s royalties will go to her eponymous foundation, which will distribute them to charitable organizations working on environmental issues.

Again on Sunday, she urged more people to get involved in climate activism, saying the time had come for “drastic changes” to the status quo.

“In order to change things, we need everyone — we need billions of activists,” she said.

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