CoP26: Save Earth, Greta and peers appeal to world leaders

A host of young climate activists, including Swedish teen sensation Greta Thunberg, appealed world leaders to save planet Earth.

Several world leaders have descended or would turn up in Glasgow for the 26th Conference of Parties (CoP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, starting today November 1, 2021.

It is being billed as a make-or-break opportunity to save known life from climate change turmoils.

Greta, along with Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate, Polish activist Dominika Lasota and others released an appeal through United States-based non-profit Avaaaz.

Thunberg wrote:

We are catastrophically far from the crucial goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius, and yet governments everywhere are still accelerating the crisis, spending billions on fossil fuels. This is not a drill. It is code red for the Earth. Millions will suffer as our planet is devastated — a terrifying future that will be created, or avoided, by the decisions you make. You have the power to decide.

Thunberg and others made the following demands of the leaders:

• Keep the precious goal of 1.5°C alive with immediate, drastic, annual emission reductions unlike anything the world has ever seen.
• End all fossil fuel investments, subsidies and new projects immediately and stop new exploration and extraction.
• End ‘creative’ carbon accounting by publishing total emissions for all consumption indices, supply chains, international aviation and shipping, and the burning of biomass.
• Deliver the $100 billion promised to the most vulnerable countries, with additional funds for climate disasters.
• Enact climate policies to protect workers and the most vulnerable and reduce all forms of inequality.

Thunberg said the world could still do this:

There is still time to avoid the worst consequences if we are prepared to change. It will take determined, visionary leadership. And it will take immense courage — but know that when you rise, billions will be right behind you.

She said her hope lay in people, “in the millions of us who are rising to save the future. It lies in our marches, in our dogged determination to keep fighting and in our trembling voices as we speak truth to power.”

“My hope is rooted in action and fuelled by a love for humanity and our most beautiful earth. It's what keeps me absolutely convinced that we can do this. And we must do this. Together,” she added.

Thunberg said she and her fellow activists would personally meet dozens of governments. “It is the perfect opportunity to deliver a giant call for urgent action,” she said.

She signed off with the words: “Fierce Hope”.

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