Greta Thunberg - The African Mirror

Dec

2023

COP28 climate deal ‘stab in the back’, activist Greta Thunberg says

THE COP 28 climate deal reached with huge fanfare this week in Dubai is a stab in the back for the nations most affected by global warming and won't stop temperatures rising beyond critical levels, activist Greta Thunberg said. Nearly 200 countries agreed at the summit to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuel and adopt a raft of measures, including more clean energy production, to avert the worst effects of climate change. But critics say the deal will not prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, which scientists say will trigger catastrophic and irreversible impacts, from…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

’30‌ ‌years‌ ‌of‌ ‌blah‌ ‌blah‌ ‌blah’:‌ ‌Thunberg‌ ‌questions‌ ‌Italy‌ ‌climate‌ ‌talks‌

WORLD

STEPHEN JEWKES and GIULIO PIOVACCARI GRETA Thunberg and fellow youth campaigners struck a sceptical tone for this week's climate talks in Italy, saying much has been promised but little done to tackle global warming in almost three decades since the landmark Earth Summit. Fears that climate change is worsening grew after a U.N. report in August warned the situation was dangerously close to spiralling out of control, with the world certain to face further disruptions for generations to come. "Thirty years of blah, blah, blah," Thunberg told the opening session of a Youth4Climate event on Tuesday. Thousands of young activists…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Youth activists urge bigger say in decision making for climate-hit Africans

ENVIRONMENT

AMBER MILNE YOUNG African environmental activists say it is crucial those most impacted by climate change have a bigger say in decision-making to find solutions, including at upcoming COP26 U.N. climate talks set for November in Glasgow. In an online discussion joined by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nigerian environmentalist Olumide Idowu said African youth could "no longer afford to be spectators of our future". "Most of these negotiators negotiate on behalf of us, without us ... we should be looking at how we can be a part of these negotiations," Idowu said. From stronger heatwaves and storms to droughts…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

India’s arrest of activist tied to Greta Thunberg’s movement sparks outrage

WORLD

CHANDINI MONNAPA and RUPAM JAIN INDIAN politicians and activists on Monday condemned the arrest of a 22-year-old climate campaigner accused of helping edit and distribute an online document that Sweden's Greta Thunberg had promoted in support of farmers protesting in the country. Thunberg had shared a "toolkit" on Twitter which listed ways to help Indian farmers, who have been protesting agricultural reforms they fear will ruin their livelihoods. Over the weekend, police brought Disha Ravi, a leader of the Indian arm of Thunberg's climate crisis-related Fridays for Future movement, to the capital from her home in the southern city of…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

World in denial on climate action 5 years after Paris accord, says Thunberg

WORLD

FIVE years on from the Paris Agreement on climate change, the world remains in denial over the actions needed to prevent catastrophic warming, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg said on Friday. The deal was adopted on December 12, 2015 by 196 countries but, so far, global leaders have failed to deliver on its promises, she said in a video that urged her 10.5 million Instagram followers to #FightFor1point5. That was a reference to the ambition set out in the accord to hold the rise in average global temperatures to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The video showed images of politicians…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

For Ugandan activist, COVID curbs set new hurdle in climate fight

ENVIRONMENT

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA IN a run-down residential compound in Kampala, Vanessa Nakate thrusts her fist in the air as she rallies 30 young demonstrators to defend their planet against climate change. "What do we want?" she shouts, to a ragged chorus of "climate justice". The youngest protester, two-year-old Manvir Ssozi, sucks his thumb as he flaps a placard that reads: "Money will be ... useless on a dead planet." Nakate's demonstration in the Ugandan capital is part of a global day of youth action against climate change inspired by Sweden's Greta Thunberg. A wiry and vivacious 23-year-old, Nakate founded a climate…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Climate strikers plan ‘safe’ return to protests, Greta Thunberg says

WORLD

LAURIE GOERING LEADERS of a youth climate strike movement launched by teen activist Greta Thunberg said on Friday they will return to mass protests - including street actions where possible - next week, as wildfires and other climate threats surge around the planet. "We are going to send a signal we must treat this crisis like a crisis. This is a global emergency," Thunberg told journalists in an online briefing. The protests will be carried out both on the streets and digitally, "whichever way is safe", she said from Sweden. More than 2,300 protest actions have been registered for the…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Greta Thunberg plans to donate 1 million-euro prize to green causes

WORLD

THIN LEI WIN SWEDISH teen activist Greta Thunberg plans to donate 1 million euros ($1.14 million) from a new prize she has won to groups tackling climate change and defending nature. The first projects to benefit from Thunberg receiving the inaugural Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity are medical aid for indigenous communities in the Amazon battling the coronavirus pandemic and a push to make "ecocide" an international crime. The 17-year-old said in a video posted on Instagram that the award was "more money than I can even begin to imagine" and she hoped it would help her "do more good in…