Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has accused countries of being in denial about the climate crisis ahead of the COP26 meeting in Glasgow in November.
her comments came in an opinion piece in The Guardian on Thursday.
the following is the start of a news report on her opinion in the same outlet.
”Greta Thunberg has accused countries including the UK of being in denial over the extent of the climate and ecological crisis and using “creative carbon accounting” to augment their green credentials.
”In an opinion piece for the Guardian, the Swedish activist says world leaders have been responsible for several years of inaction in reducing emissions which she has termed “their decades of blah, blah, blah”.
”Thunberg also accused the UK, the US and China of spinning emissions statistics to make it appear that their levels are lower.
”She wrote: “Between 1990 and 2016, the UK lowered its territorial emissions by 41%. However, once you include the full scale of the UK emissions – such as consumption of imported goods, international aviation and shipping etc – the reduction is more like 15%.
”“And this is excluding burning of biomass, like at Drax’s Selby plant – a heavily subsidised so-called “renewable” power plant that is, according to analysis, the UK’s biggest single emitter of CO2 and the third biggest in all of Europe.
“”And yet the government still considers the UK to be a global climate leader.“
”The UK is, of course, far from the only country relying on such creative carbon accounting. This is the norm.
”“China, currently by far the world’s biggest emitter of CO2, is planning to build 43 new coal power plants on top of the 1,000 plants already in operation – while also claiming to be an ecological ‘trailblazer’ committed to leaving “a clean and beautiful world to future generations.””
