Who on Earth thought it would be good idea to invite Greta Thunberg to the COP31 climate conference, the first she has attended in five years? In the interim, she has reinvented herself as a pro-Palestinian activist and general left-wing rent-a-quote. She also seems to have a somewhat mocking approach to her former colleagues in the Fridays for the Future movement – which organised, and apparently still organises, school strikes. Footage has emerged of Greta, during the filming of a documentary, laughing at them. Climate campaigning, in her mind, has become a little passé now a more fashionable cause has come along.
Climate campaigning, in her mind, has become a little passé now a more fashionable cause has come along
Thunberg never had anything useful to say about climate change, green energy or anything else. Her use to the cause revolved around her youthful innocence. She could spout whatever nonsense she liked; if anyone dared contradict her, they would be condemned for picking on a schoolgirl, and one with Asperger’s at that. We were supposed to feel shame that we were letting our kids down by failing to tackle climate change.
That all came to an end when Greta reached 18 and evolved into an occasionally foul-mouthed, hardened political activist. The organisers of COP31 really need to go talent-spotting around the high schools for a new, fresh-faced yoof voice.
Instead, they have Greta, who becomes more of a liability by the year. All she achieves is to remind people of the strong anti-capitalist undercurrent of the climate movement. According to Greta we are, ‘constantly sacrificing the global majority in favour of a fortunate few who are making unimaginable profits.’ If she means oil companies, she might stop for a moment to wonder how the world would get on for the next few decades without people prepared to invest in the oil industry. Even the greatest enthusiasts for net zero accept that we can’t simply turn off the oil taps overnight, not without crashing the global economy. Moreover, there are green entrepreneurs making handsome profits, too. Does Greta think they are evil? If so, how does she think people should be incentivised to develop the massive technological breakthroughs required to get anywhere near net zero?
COP meetings have become fundamentally dishonest. We have left-wing activists feigning interest in the climate but who really want to use it as a vehicle to finish off global capitalism. At the same time, we have governments of oil-rich countries who use the event to push their own fossil fuel industries – while signing declarations they hope will lead to other countries foregoing their own reserves. In Britain they have found their perfect patsy; a country which signs these deals and then actually carries through with them, making us more dependent on other country’s exports in the process. Even Mark Carney – who as Governor of the Bank of England warned of ‘stranded assets’ in the oil industry – now, as Prime Minister of Canada, can’t exploit his country’s reserves quickly enough.
Greta has become a suitable figurehead for the whole sorry business. Her unintended role has been to show the hypocrisy for what it is.
