‘Blah blah blah’: Greta Thunberg mocks leaders over climate inaction at Youth4Climate conference

Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron among the targets as Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg ridicules world leaders at Milan conference.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg delivers a speech during the opening plenary session of the Youth4Climate event in Milan. Picture: AFP

Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, has ridiculed world leaders at the Youth4Climate conference in Milan, saying that “hopes and dreams are drowned in their empty words and promises’’.

The 18-year-old mocked several phrases used by British prime minister Boris Johnson and French president Emmanuel Macron and the commonly-promoted hopes of politicians to strive for net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“Leaders have had 30 years of ‘blah blah blah’ and where has that led us? Over 50 per cent of all our CO2 emissions have occurred since 1990, and a third since 2005,” she said.

“All this while the media is reporting on what the leaders say they are going to do, instead of what they are actually doing. And then not holding leaders accountable for their action, or rather inaction.”

“We can no longer let the people in power decide what hope is. Hope is not passive. Hope is not blah blah blah. Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action”
My speech at #Youth4Climate#PreCOP26 in Milan. pic.twitter.com/BA62GpST2O

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) September 28, 2021

Ms Thunberg was a guest speaker at the youth climate congress, a forerunner to the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow at the end of October, and in her speech expressed frustration at decades of environmental inaction.

“There is no Planet B, there is no planet blah – blah, blah, blah; blah, blah, blah. This is not about some expensive politically correct green act, bunny hugging, or blah blah blah. Build back better, blah blah blah; green economy, blah blah blah; Net Zero by 2050, blah blah blah. Net Zero, blah blah blah. Climate neutral, blah blah blah.

Greta Thunberg (left) comforts Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate as Nakate reacts after delivering a speech during the opening plenary session of the Youth4Climate event in Milan. Picture: AFP

“This is all we hear from our so-called leaders: words, words that sound great but so far has led to no action – our hopes and dreams drowned in their empty words and promises.”

She warned that the world was speeding in the wrong direction, with 2021 projected to have the second highest emission rise.

“Only about two per cent of government recovery spendings have been allocated to clean energy measures, and according to a new report by the UN, global emissions are expected to rise by 16 per cent by 2030 compared to 2010 levels,” she said.

“Our leaders’ intentional lack of action is a betrayal towards all present and future generations. The people in power cannot claim that they are trying because they are clearly not. If this is what they consider to be climate action, then we don’t want it.”

Ms Thunberg said it would take “drastic annual emission cuts unlike anything the world has ever seen”, demanding immediate action.