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Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg arrived at the UN climate summit on Tuesday, launching a sharp critique of the annual gathering as hypocritical and calling on world leaders to place people and the planet ahead of financial gain and geopolitical power.
The COP31 conference, taking place in the Turkish resort city of Antalya, follows a year marked by destructive weather events, including lethal floods and heatwaves, alongside energy market turbulence triggered by the Iran war.
"It’s a hypocrisy every year that the host countries are given an opportunity to whitewash themselves and we know that these negotiations are filled with lobbyists, paid by the very destructive industries which are benefiting from our extremely violent status quo," Thunberg said upon arrival. "Our political and economic systems that have become incompatible with human nature."
Turkey is co-hosting the summit alongside Australia. While both nations are promoting renewable energy expansion and rooftop solar power, both continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels, particularly coal, for electricity generation. Previous host nations, including Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, and Azerbaijan, are major oil producers.
Climate change is "threatening everything”, Thunberg warned, stating that "everything and everyone we love is at stake."
