Young campaigners seize spotlight at COP26 as Greta Thunberg leads protest outside climate conference
Hundreds of demonstrators coated the streets of the Scottish metropolis on Friday, with many bearing placards that warned of the results of rising temperatures and excessive climate occasions.
Eighteen-year-old campaigner Greta Thunberg was set to talk to protesters later, greater than three years after she based the “Fridays for Future” faculty strikes motion that galvanized youth motion over local weather change.
Crowds chanted “We’re unstoppable, one other world is feasible,” and different slogans as they tried to draw consideration close to the venue. A big police contingent corralled crowds as they grew all through the morning.
Daisy Deakin, a 7-year-old from Glasgow accompanied by her mom Isabel, stated she needed to come back to the protest to see Thunberg.
“She saves the world from local weather change,” she instructed CNN, as she displayed an indication saying “Save our planet.”
“Our dad and mom will die from outdated age. Our youngsters will die from local weather change,” warned a banner carried by 22-year-old Maia Runciman, initially from Texas and now residing in Glasgow.
“I am right here to push world leaders to place the [climate] insurance policies in place and defend the world for the long run,” she stated.
Inside, younger individuals have been additionally the main focus of the summit. The theme of the occasion’s fifth day was “youth and public empowerment,” with leaders searching for to attraction to youthful audiences worldwide as they pressed forward with negotiations.
“I speak to people who find themselves pissed off on a regular basis, and I think about myself one of many pissed off,” the US’ local weather envoy John Kerry stated in response to protests exterior.
Thunberg’s speech on Friday comes after per week through which she has been mobbed by supporters and members of the media.
On Monday, the activist joined different “Fridays for Future” campaigners at an indication at Pageant Park in Glasgow, close to the UN local weather summit, the place she as soon as once more mocked politicians for his or her inaction on local weather.
She stated the politicians and delegates gathered on the COP talks have been “pretending to take our future significantly.”
“Change isn’t going to come back from inside there. That isn’t management, that is management,” Thunberg added, referring to the group of protesters assembled exterior.
“That is what management seems to be like. We are saying no extra blah blah blah, no extra exploitation of individuals and nature and the planet… No extra regardless of the f**okay they’re doing inside there,” she continued.
