Greta Thunberg

Thunberg announced she would be skipping the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, otherwise known as COP27.

“has a special responsibility to provide moral and political leadership on the climate crisis, as it is the country that initiated the industrial revolution—as a legacy polluter as well as a brutal colonizer.” They haven’t got the answer,” Starmer said to local media LBC. Left-wing opposition leader in the U.K. Thunberg first attended the COP summit in 2019, when she was just 16 years old. The COP conferences “are not really meant to change the whole system,” Thunberg said to a crowd in London on Sunday, noting that instead of pushing for radical change, it encourages gradual progress. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has declined her invitation to the biggest climate conference in the world, calling it a forum for “greenwashing.”

The 19-year-old climate activist says she plans to skip next week's U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt — the 27th since the process began ...

It can feel overwhelming facing the impacts of climate change, but there are [ways to cope with climate anxiety](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/climate-change-anxiety-dread-cope/2021/07/14/471eb264-e4d4-11eb-b722-89ea0dde7771_story.html?itid=lb_more-on-climate-change_6). As temperatures rise, heat waves are more often sweeping the globe — and parts of the world are [becoming too hot to survive](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/climate-change-humidity/?itid=lb_more-on-climate-change_4&itid=lb_more-on-climate-change_3). As seas rise, others are exploring [how to harness marine energy](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/cop26-scotland-wave-energy-renewables/?itid=lb_more-on-climate-change_14&itid=lb_more-on-climate-change_8). At previous international climate conferences, she has stood on the sidelines, repeating over and over again some version of “This is not enough.” [said](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/31/greta-thunberg-to-skip-greenwashing-cop27-climate-summit-in-egypt) during a question-and-answer session in London for the release of her book, “The Climate Book,” a collection of essays featuring climate scientists, activists, and other experts on climate science and solutions. [36 billion metric tons](https://www.iea.org/news/global-co2-emissions-rebounded-to-their-highest-level-in-history-in-2021) of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. Still, her strength has always been her ability to point out, in no uncertain terms, that the world is not doing enough on climate change. Thunberg’s shunning of this year’s COP may, at some level, be a recognition of the fact that the climate conferences’ usefulness is limited. In recent years, landmark climate laws have been passed in the United States and Europe while the price of renewable energy has plummeted. At some level, of course, Thunberg is right: The United Nations climate summits are, practically by definition, not intended to overthrow the world economic system or even drastically cut emissions. In 2018, the then-15-year-old wandered the halls of a United Nations conference venue in Poland in a black zip-up hoodie and tennis shoes, followed by a gaggle of media and policymakers impressed by her straight-talking realism about the climate crisis. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt — the 27th since the process began — entirely.