Climate activist Greta Thunberg has condemned the COP31 climate talks as hypocritical, accusing world leaders of putting corporate interests and geopolitical power ahead of people and the planet.
Arriving at the United Nations summit in the Turkish resort city of Antalya on Tuesday, Thunberg criticised host countries for using the annual negotiations to improve their environmental credentials while continuing to rely heavily on fossil fuels. She also warned that the talks were being influenced by lobbyists representing industries that profit from continued dependence on polluting energy sources.
Thunberg's Criticism of Host Countries
The 23-year-old activist said: "It's a hypocrisy every year that the host countries are given an opportunity to whitewash themselves. These negotiations are filled with lobbyists, paid by the very destructive industries which are benefiting from our extremely violent status quo."
Thunberg said the world's political and economic systems had become incompatible with human nature, warning that climate change was threatening everything people held dear.
"We should act to protect and benefit people rather than constantly sacrificing the global majority and the very planet we are all living on, for a fortunate few to keep making unimaginable profits and maintaining geopolitical power," she said.
Context and Background
The COP31 summit comes after a year of deadly climate-related disasters, including heatwaves and floods, as well as renewed energy uncertainty linked to the Iran war.
Co-hosts Turkey and Australia have promoted renewable energy, including solar power, but both remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels, particularly coal, for electricity generation. Previous host nations have also included major oil producers such as Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan.
This is Thunberg's first appearance at a climate summit since COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, when she famously dismissed world leaders' pledges as "blah, blah, blah".
Thunberg's Activism and COP31 Goals
She first attracted international attention in 2018, aged 15, when she began a solitary school strike outside the Swedish Parliament to demand stronger action on climate change. Her campaign developed into a global youth movement, and she later published The Climate Book in 2022, setting out proposals to tackle the crisis.
In recent years, she has also become involved in other political and social causes, including the Free Palestine movement. She was arrested in London last year while supporting pro-Palestinian activists on hunger strike and has joined protests over environmental and education issues in other countries.
At COP31, Turkey is pushing for greater global electrification, encouraging sectors including transport, buildings and heavy industry to move away from fossil fuels. It wants electricity to account for 35 per cent of global energy consumption by 2035, up from about 23 per cent currently, with renewables such as wind and solar playing a central role.
Despite her criticism of the negotiations, Thunberg said progress should not be dismissed entirely.
"We have to take the victories we have, of course, because we are so desperate in this situation that we have to take all the positive signs we can get to save as much as we can still save," she said.
Her arrival was welcomed by young climate campaigners attending the summit, many of whom said her presence could help maintain pressure on governments to deliver meaningful action.
Amber Turner, a 26-year-old fellow with the Alliance of Small Island States, said she hoped Thunberg's appearance would remind delegates why the climate movement began. She said worsening climate impacts were making it increasingly difficult for young people to feel confident about having a safe and prosperous future.
Other youth representatives also welcomed the attention Thunberg could bring to the negotiations, while stressing that activists from vulnerable communities around the world were already working to defend their homes and livelihoods.
Protests at the summit have called for increased climate finance and criticised growing interest in nuclear energy. The talks in Antalya are due to continue until November 20, with Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, scheduled to host COP32 in November 2027.
