“The climate crisis is already here and now – and it is already a matter of life and death,” said Greta Thunberg, in her first press conference at a UN climate summit since COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, adding:
“The actions from those in power here are completely detached from reality. As we speak, we are losing priceless lives, ecosystems and species that we will never get back.
“And the climate crisis is a crisis of injustice, where those least responsible for this crisis are being hit hardest and fastest.”
Thunberg has long used her global platform to give a voice to global south campaigners.
She was joined by Mohammed Usrof, a climate activist and researcher from Gaza, who called out countries that continue to supply fossil fuels to Israel, telling journalists:
“Corporations continue to fuel not just genocide in Palestine, but the devastation of the world. [There is a] never-ending proliferation of fossil fuels that we are seeing the consequences of in Nepal, in Australia and all over the global majority world.
“So, it’s extremely crucial here to recognise what is happening in this COP, the stakes that we are here for [and] the stakes that our lived realities essentially symbolise to these negotiations.”
Other speakers included Sagar Dhakal, a young Nepalese politician, who said “there are not any words in the dictionary” to describe the catastrophic flash floods in his country earlier this year, along with First Nations activist Rikki Dank and Rwanda-DRC activist Celine Isimbi.
My colleague Leo Hickman took a picture of the media scrum that built up as Thunberg spoke.