Teen activist Greta Thunberg took her call for bold action to tackle climate change to a United Nations summit in Spain, warning world leaders that a growing youth-led protest movement meant they could no longer hide.
Accorded rock-star status by young environmental activists, the 16-year-old had crossed the Atlantic by boat to drop in on the climate talks in Madrid then join one of the Friday afternoon marches she has inspired around the world.
"The current world leaders are betraying us and we will not let that happen anymore," Thunberg said on Friday in a brief speech to the protesters, some of whom had chanted "We Love You Greta."
"Change is coming whether you like it or not because we have no other choice," she said.
About 15,000 marchers took part, according to a municipal official in Madrid. Young activists formed a human shield to protect Thunberg, but the crush of onlookers was so intense that she had to be whisked to the stage at the end of the rally in a red electric car.
The media scrum that followed Thunberg underscored how an upsurge in climate activism has pushed the crisis up the agenda since the school pupil began solitary strikes outside the parliament in her native Sweden last summer.
"We are in one of the most critical moments in history and it seems for the first time we are speaking with one voice," said actor Javier Bardem, who also addressed the marchers.
Listen to Mamamia's daily news podcast, The Quicky. In this episode they discuss the term "climate emergency" and how to live through one. Post continues below.
Growing concern over increasingly intense wildfires, cyclones and floods has swelled the ranks of protesters in cities around the world into the millions this year.
Thunberg had earlier told an event at a cultural centre that she and her fellow activists would ensure that world leaders "cannot just hide away anymore".
"We are really gaining momentum, we are getting bigger and bigger and our voices are being heard more and more, but of course that does not translate into political action," she said.
Unwilling to fly because of the pollution it causes, Thunberg had sailed the Atlantic to attend a UN summit in September, before returning to Europe by catamaran.
The annual summit opened on Monday with a call from UN chief Antonio Guterres not to be the "generation... that fiddled while the planet burned".
Feature image: Getty.
Top Comments
Now that the consequences of global warming are apparent in the sky over Sydney, I wonder if Scott Morrison has asked himself: “am I doing everything possible to prevent this from happening?” In the midst of disaster threatening life, this is what we should expect from the leader of our country
When is she sailing for China who is growing their emissions by about the same amount as the west is cutting ours? China, who produces more CO2 than Europe and the US combined, China who is leading the world in the expansion of coal fired power production.
China only produce so much because the rest of the world keep buying their products! Which they produce very efficiently! You wantChina to reduce emissions then stop buying stuff from them that creates emissions. Find another way.
Around 30% of the Chinese population burns solid fuel for cooking and heating. Across the world, around 3 billion people burn solid fuel for cooking and heating.
The pollution from cooking on open fires is said to cause up to 3 million premature deaths each year, including over 600,000 in China annually.
Ok, another way is to require them to observe the same environmental practices we have in the West, and to lower power prices here and encourage our industries to produce locally.
I seriously doubt that cooking solid fuel on open fires comes anywhere near the emissions created by the production of steel (China does a lot of that for the cars etc we drive), the production of textiles for fast fashion (China does a lot of that too) and the production of tech gadgets.