Denouncing the “30 years of blah blah” of world leaders on the climate, the Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, accused them on Tuesday of having “drowned” the hopes of young people in their “empty promises”.

"There is no planet B, there is no planet blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah, green economy blah blah, carbon neutrality in 2050 blah blah," she said under the applause of 400 young people from all over the world gathered in Milan by the UN one month before the crucial COP26 climate conference.

A "betrayal of current and future generations"

“That's all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words. Words that sound good but have not led to any action, our hopes and dreams drowned in their words and empty promises, ”she added. "Of course we need a constructive dialogue but they have now had 30 years of blah blah and where has that got us? ", Declared the activist again, qualifying the absence of" deliberate "action by world leaders as" betrayal of current and future generations ".

The UN, Italy and the British presidency of COP26 have invited 400 young people from nearly 200 countries, aged 15 to 29, to Milan for three days to draft a joint declaration that will be submitted to ministers at a meeting which will take place at the end of the week.

"They invite handpicked young people to meetings like this and they pretend to listen to us, but they don't, they don't listen to us, they never have," said Greta Thunberg. at the stand in front of the event organizers.

Multiplication of climatic disasters

“But we can change things,” she pleaded.

“We can no longer let the people in power decide what is politically possible and not, we can no longer let the people in power decide what hope is.

Hope is not blah blah, hope is telling the truth, hope is acting, hope always comes from the people ”, launched the young girl.

While climate disasters multiply, the commitments of States are still not up to the task to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below + 2 ° C compared to the era. pre-industrial, if possible + 1.5 ° C.

According to the latest UN assessment published in mid-September, the world is heading towards a “catastrophic” warming of + 2.7 ° C.

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