"Treating the climate crisis as a crisis": this is the title of the "conversation" organized at 11:15 a.m. (10:15 GMT) on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting this week in the Swiss ski resort, and at which the Swede participates with the Ecuadorian from the Amazon Helena Gualinga, the Ugandan Vanessa Nakate and the German Luisa Neubauer.

On the menu of the discussion, to which is also invited the Director General of the IEA, Fatih Birol: "the question of whether governments and companies are responding adequately to the climate crisis, the state of the transition towards clean energy, calls to stop new investments in fossil fuels, and what must be done to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees", detail the organizers.

The four young activists arrive in Davos with a petition launched this week calling for the multinationals to stop exploiting fossil fuels.

The text had gathered more than 870,000 signatures on Wednesday evening.

"The House is Burning"

"The oil must stay in the ground," said Helena Gualinga earlier this week in an interview with AFP.

"We come from different places in the world, but we have the same proposal. It's a call to say + we're fed up! +, fed up because we've said it several times, we need a urgent action."

"If you do not act immediately, be warned that citizens around the world will consider legal action to hold you accountable. And we will continue to demonstrate in large numbers in the streets," proclaims the petition, which copies the appearance of a legal notice.

Private jets parked at Dübendorf Air Base, Switzerland, during the Davos Forum on January 18, 2023 © SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP

This is not the first time that Greta Thunberg has come to Davos during the World Economic Forum meeting.

The 2020 edition was notably marked by his battles with US President Donald Trump.

It's time to "panic" because "the house is burning", she hammered already at the time.

Earlier this week, she had gone to support protesters who opposed the expansion of a coal mine in western Germany.

This initiative earned him a few hours of police custody on Tuesday, according to a police source, but the support in Davos of the former American vice president and environmental activist Al Gore who said Wednesday "in agreement" with his fight.

Climate is a hot topic at the Davos meeting this year.

On Wednesday, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has already called for the oil majors to be prosecuted, as the tobacco companies have been, for having hidden for years the information they had on global warming.

"Some fossil fuel producers were well aware in the 1970s that their flagship product was going to burn the planet," he said in a speech where he denounced their "big lie".

© 2023 AFP