NEW YORK CITY – A sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist delivered an impassioned message before world leaders during the Climate Action Summit here at the United Nations headquarters on Monday.
“How dare you?” Greta Thunberg told world leaders as she accused them of continuous inaction on the global climate crisis despite scientific evidence of its threat to the future and the youth.
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you?” Thunberg, one of the leading faces of the youth climate movement, told a hushed crowd.
She noted that it would be the youth who would live the consequences of climate change if no significant action is done to prevent global warming.
“You are failing us. But young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you,” she said.
“And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now, is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming whether you like it or not,” added Thunberg.
Over the past years, Thunberg has rallied a massive youth movement against climate change after getting worldwide attention for starting a school strike outside the Swedish Parliament in 2018.
She also joined 15 other young climate activists from around the world in filing a landmark children’s rights complaint against Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey for “knowingly causing and perpetuating the climate crisis.”
“You have stolen my dream, my childhood, with your empty words. And yet, I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of economic growth?” she added.
Landmark complaint
Following her speech, Thunberg joined other young activists in filing a communication to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child against the five countries for their contribution to the climate crisis.
Joining her were youth activists from Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Marshall Islands, Palau, Nigeria, South Africa, Sweden, Tunisia and the United States.
“Each respondent – Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey – has known about the harmful effects of its internal and cross-border contributions to climate change for decades,” read the 97-page communication, which alleged violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“Despite their decades-long knowledge, each respondent has breached its human rights duties by causing and perpetuating the climate crisis and undermining international cooperation,” it added.
While the five countries are not among those with the highest emissions that contribute to global warming, the petitioners said their ability to influence international cooperation makes their impact on climate change greater than their actual share of emissions.
The petitioners could not include the four highest emitters – China, United States, European Union and India – as they have yet to ratify the optional protocol of the convention that provides for mechanisms in filing communications.
In its communication, the young activists said the respondents failed to reduce emissions at the greatest possible rate and consistent with a scale that is scientifically established to protect life.
They also accused them of failing to use all available legal, diplomatic and economic tools to ensure that the major emitters are also decarbonizing at a rate and scale necessary to achieve the collective goals.
“Each respondent has failed to prevent foreseeable human rights harms caused by climate change by reducing its emissions at the ‘highest possible ambition.’ Each respondent is delaying the steep cuts in carbon emissions needed to protect the lives and welfare of children at home and abroad,” read the petition.
The petition urged the committee to recognize that climate change is a children’s rights crisis and that the respondent countries, along with other states, “have caused and are perpetuating the climate crisis by knowingly acting in disregard of the available scientific evidence.”
Climate summit
The communication was filed even as UN Secretary-General Antònio Guterres pushed world leaders to commit to significant action plans to address the climate crisis.
“Young are here providing solutions, insisting on accountability, demanding urgent action. They are right. My generation has failed in its responsibility to protect our planet. That must change,” he said in the opening of the Climate Action Summit he convened.
“The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win. The climate crisis is caused by us – and the solutions must come from us. We have the tools: technology is on our side,” he added.
Dozens of world leaders from governments, civil society and private sector attended the summit to present commitments to cut emissions and strengthen climate resilience.
Even United States President Donald Trump, who denies climate change and pushed for the withdrawal of the US from the Paris climate agreement, briefly dropped by the summit.
Luis Alfonso de Alba, the UN Special Envoy for the Climate Change Summit, described Trump’s presence as a “positive signal,” saying leaders are always welcome to join in the discussions to address the climate crisis.
“We have been repeating that climate change is not an environmental issue only. It is an issue that requires the transformation of the economy and the way we produce and consume,” he said. “Without the involvement of the head of state, we will not achieve that purpose.” – With AP