GRETA THUNBERG : 'THIRTY YEARS OF BLAH, BLAH, BLAH'

The young Swedish activist attacks our political leaders for continued lack of action on climate change.

FOUR HUNDRED young climate activists from 180 countries have descended on Milan for the three day Youth4Climate summit. It will send its recommendations to the COP26 climate summit to held in Glasgow, beginning October 31.

But Greta Thunberg - and others  - have cast doubts on the agenda of the Youth4Climate summit and are demanding more accountability from political leaders and a bigger official role for young people.

'They cherry-picked young people to pretend they are listening to us', Thunberg told the summit. 'But they are not. They are clearly not listening to us. Just look at the numbers. Emissions are still rising. The science doesn't lie. Leaders like to say. 'We can do it.' They obviously don't mean it. But we do.'

Thunberg, and the movement she represents, have clearly lost patience with a political establishment that, despite all the rhetoric, has done next to nothing to reverse climate trends. She pointed out that half of all carbon emissions have occurred since 1990, one-third since 2005.

Thunberg has previously singled out New Zealand as one of the worst performers on climate change, noting that its 57 percent increase in emissions between 1990 and 2018 was the second largest increase among industrialised countries.

Youth4Climate concludes September 30.