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Greta says climate demands ‘completely ignored’ at Davos

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Stuart Williams -


Teenage activist Greta Thunberg on Friday said activists’ calls on the corporate and political elite at Davos to seriously fight climate change had been “completely ignored”, but vowed not to be subdued by stinging personal criticism from the Trump administration.


The 50th edition of the annual Swiss Alps forum wrapped up with the menace of climate change — which UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned could leave humanity “doomed” — hammered into the minds of participants but doubt over whether any concrete action would be forthcoming.


Thunberg, 17, whose school strike movement had inspired a generation of young people to pressure governments over their inaction, had told the World Economic Forum (WEF) she wanted to see an immediate end to investment in fossil fuels.


“Before we came here we had a few demands for this WEF. Of course these demands have been completely ignored. We expected nothing less,” Thunberg told reporters in the ski resort on the last day of the conference.


“As long as the science is being ignored — as the facts are not being taken into account — and as long as the situation is not being treated as a crisis, then world and business leaders can, of course, continue to ignore the situation.


“They do not have to do anything as they are not being held accountable,” she lamented before joining other young people in one of her regular “Fridays for Future” protests in Davos.


The Swede had emerged as one of the key figures of the Davos forum, warning “our house is still on fire” and prompting US President Donald Trump to grumble on his visit to the event about the “perennial prophets of doom”.


Her demand for an immediate halt to investment in fossil fuels also prompted a stingingly personal aside from US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday.


“Is she the chief economist? Who is she? I’m confused,” Mnuchin said, emphasising after a pause that this was a joke.


“After she goes and studies economics in college, she can come back and explain that to us,” he said.


Asked about Mnuchin’s comments, the Swede said: “Of course it has no effect. We are being criticised like that all the time.”


“If we cared about that, we would not be able to do what we do. We put ourselves in the spotlight.”


Mnuchin on Friday launched a new defence of US policy, insisting the Trump administration cared for the environment, but that problems should not be reduced to just climate change. — AFP


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