‘Blah, blah, blah’

Greta Thunberg is not very optimistic about the climate talks held in Italy this week, the environmental youth activist said as she arrived at the venue in Milan yesterday.

Thousands of young people, including Thunberg, will converge on Milan this week, with some 400 from about 190 countries set to meet policymakers, either remotely or in person, to hammer out proposals to tackle global warming, reports Reuters.

She quoted statements by Boris Johnson: "This is not some expensive, politically correct, green act of bunny hugging", and Narendra Modi: "Fighting climate change calls for innovation, cooperation and willpower" but said the science did not lie.

Carbon emissions are on track to rise by 16% by 2030, according to the UN, rather than fall by half, which is the cut needed to keep global heating under the internationally agreed limit of 1.5C, reports The Guardian.

"Build back better. Blah, blah, blah. Green economy. Blah blah blah. Net zero by 2050. Blah, blah, blah," she said in a speech to the Youth4Climate summit in Milan yesterday. "This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words that sound great but so far have not led to action. Our hopes and ambitions drown in their empty promises."

The Cop26 climate summit starts in Glasgow, UK, on 31 October and all the big-polluting countries must deliver tougher pledges to cut emissions to keep the goal of 1.5C within reach.