Greta Thunberg’s speech at UN climate change conference

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Channel 4 News

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why is it so important to stay below 1.5 degrees because even a one degree people are dying from the climate crisis because that's what the united science calls for to avoid destabilizing the climates so that we have the best possible chance to avoid setting of irreversible chain reactions such as melting glaciers polarize and throwing bockting permafrost every fraction of a degree matters so there it is again this is my message this is what I want you to focus on so please tell me how do you react to these numbers without feeling at least some level of panic how do you respond to the facts that basically nothing is being done about this without feeling the slightest bits of anger and how do you communicate this without sounding alarmist I would really like to know since the Paris agreement global banks have invested one point nine trillion u.s. dollars in fossil fuels 100 companies are responsible for 71 percent of global emissions the g20 countries account for almost 80 percent of total emissions the richest 10% of the world's population to produce half of our co2 emissions while the poorest 50 percent account for just 1/10 we indeed have some work to do but some of more than others recently a handful of rich countries pledged to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by so on so many percent by this or that date or to become climate neutral or Net Zero and so on so many years this may sound impressive at first glance but even though the intentions may be good this is not leadership this is not leading this is misleading because most of these pledges do not include aviation shipping and imported and exported goods in consumption they do however include the possibility of countries to offset their emissions elsewhere these pledges don't include the immediate yearly reduction rates needed for wealthy countries which is necessary to stay within the remaining tiny budget zero in 2050 means nothing if high emission continues even for a few years then the remaining budget will be gone without seeing the full picture we will not solve this crisis finding holistic solutions is what the cop should be all about but instead it seems to have turned into some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes and to avoid raising their ambition countries are finding clever ways around having to take real action like double counting emissions reductions and moving their emissions overseas and working back on their promises to increase ambition refusing to pay for solutions or loss and damage this has to stop what we need is real drastic emission cuts at the source but of course just reducing emissions is not enough our greenhouse gas emissions has to stop to stay below 1.5 degrees we need to keep the carbon in the ground only setting up distant dates and saying things which give the impression of that action is underway will most likely do more harm than good because the changes required are still nowhere in sight the politics needed that does not exist today despite what you might hear from world leaders and I still believe that the biggest danger is not inaction the real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening when in fact almost nothing is being done apart from clever accounting and creative PR I have been fortunate enough to be able to travel around the world and my experience is that the lack of awareness is the same everywhere not the least amongst those elected to lead us there is no sense of urgency whatsoever our leaders are not behaving as if we were in an emergency in an emergency you change your behavior if there's a child standing in the middle of the road and cars are coming at full speed you don't look away because it's too uncomfortable you immediately run out and rescue that child and without that sense of urgency how can we the people understand that we are facing a real crisis and if the people are not fully aware of what is going on then they will not put pressure on the people in power to do to act and without pressure from the people our leaders can get away with basically not doing anything well which is where we are now and around and around it goes in just three weeks we will enter a new decade a decade they will define our future right now we are desperate for any sign of hope well I'm telling you there is hope I have seen it but it does not come from the governments or corporations it comes from the people the people who have been unaware but are now starting to wake up and once we become aware we change people can change people are ready for change and that is the hope because we have democracy and democracy is happen all the time not just on Election Day but every second and every hour it is public opinion that runs the free world in fact every great change throughout history has come from the people we do not have to wait we can start the change right now we the people thank [Applause] you