The COP26 is a "failure", judges Greta Thunberg in front of thousands of young people in Glasgow

Europe 1 with AFP 6:35 p.m., November 5, 2021

The face of the youth climate movement, Sweden's Greta Thunberg called the Glasgow climate conference a "failure" in front of thousands of young people who came to demonstrate in this Scottish city to call for action against the looming climate change. their generation and the following.

"It's no secret that COP26 is a failure," she told several thousand children, adolescents and young adults, describing the conference as "a celebration of 'business as usual' and blah blah. ".

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Leaders who "do not show the way"

“Our leaders are not showing the way, this is what leadership looks like,” she continued, pointing to the crowd. "Our kings are naked (...) History will judge them severely", she said of the leaders gathered for the COP, accusing them once again of inaction and again evoking a "festival of greenwashing ". A second day of protests is scheduled for Saturday in Glasgow, at the end of the first of two weeks of COP26, to cry out for the climate emergency in the face of the devastating effects across the planet of rising temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions greenhouse generated by human activities.

"I hope today will make a difference," said Zara, 9, who lives in Glasgow. I hope we will be able to plant more trees, have more animals. I think that each person can make a difference. "There were many Scots children on Friday who skipped school and sang in their clear voices in the streets of Glasgow with young people from all over the world. The inhabitants, leaning over at their window or lined up along the streets of the old city center lined with ocher or pink sandstone buildings watched the march dotted with a banner reading "No planet B" and chanting "If not now, then it will be when ?".

Also among the crowd led by the global Fridays for Futurese movement and among the speakers was Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate.

Beth Donaldson, a 16-year-old Scottish woman came with friends to say that not far from there, locked in the huge conference center, it is adults, in delegations from nearly 200 countries, who decide on the future of his contemporaries.

"We see all these political leaders on TV saying that they are going to act but we never know what kind of actions they are going to take. It is not really their future that is in question but ours," he said. she said.

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"The kids are aware" 

Julia Klein, a 50-year-old performer, came to demonstrate with her 10-year-old son. "It's the kids who are really going to be affected by this. And they already know that. I want them to have a clean planet. Not that they have to fight for food or die in fires or floods. ", she says. Inspired by Greta Thunberg, millions of young people took to the streets across the world in 2019 to call on their leaders to act faster and stronger against global warming.

The 2015 Paris agreement aims to limit global warming to well below + 2 ° C, if possible + 1.5 ° C, to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, which are already wreaking havoc across the country. planet.

Each additional tenth of a degree has its share of consequences.

But, according to the latest UN estimates, the world is heading towards a "catastrophic" warming of + 2.7 ° C.