Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg today condemned the meeting of major corporations in Davos, Switzerland, for "encouraging the destruction of the planet" by investing in fossil fuels and prioritizing short-term profits over people affected by the climate crisis.
Greta Thunberg was joined by prominent young activists Vanessa Nakata, Helena Gualinga and Luisa Neubauer at a roundtable with International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.
Nakate said that "leaders are playing" with people's futures and that those living in the parts of the world most affected by climate change are just trying to "last one more day, to survive one more Sunday, to last one more hour, one more minute." .
Ecuadorian activist Gualinga said the world is "going down a really dangerous path."
Activists brought a "cease and desist" letter calling on fossil fuel company leaders to halt all new oil and natural gas drilling projects, signed by nearly 900.000 people.
Nakate added that current levels of warming, which have reached up to 1,2 degrees Celsius, mean it is "already a living hell for many communities across the African continent" who are facing extreme drought, heat and flooding.
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, when asked what she would change in order to speed up the transition to renewable sources, answered that she would lock the USA, China, India and the EU in a room.
"Let them out after they sign a commitment in blood to work together to save the planet," she said at a discussion on green finance in Davos.
"The changes we need probably won't come from within but from the bottom up. Without massive public pressure from the outside, at least in my experience, these people will go as far as they can," Thunberg said.
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