Thunberg: ‘Massive public pressure’ needed to galvanize climate fight

Calling for “massive” pressure to fight climate change after Monday’s dire report by a U.N. science panel, activist Greta Thunberg said she plans to go to this year’s global climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, after all.

The major U.N. conference will test countries’ ambition to limit global warming, which a landmark scientific report on Monday warned was dangerously close to escalating beyond the limits countries agreed on.

“I hope that this can be a wake up call, in every possible way,” Thunberg said of the report, in an interview with Reuters.

“When these extreme weather events are happening, many say, what will it take for people in power to start acting? What are they waiting for? And it will take many things, but especially, it will take massive pressure from the public and massive pressure from the media,” she said.

The U.N. report landed just three months before the Glasgow conference in November.

Thunberg, who has rallied youth to protest for climate action worldwide, had initially said she would skip the event out of concern that the uneven rollout of COVID-19 vaccines across the world would leave some countries unable to attend safely.

via Reuters