Before UN climate summit COP26
“Some people pissed off”: Thunberg defends radical protests
Relies on friction in her actions: Climate protection activist Greta Thunberg, here last Friday during an interview for the BBC program “The Andrew Marr Show”
© Jeff Overs, BBC / AFP
Protest actions for more climate protection do not always go down well with everyone. Environmental activist Greta Thunberg now told the BBC that this was quite intentional.
Environmental activist Greta Thunberg has justified radical forms of protest in the fight for more climate protection. Sometimes it is just necessary to annoy certain people in order to draw attention to topics, the Swede said on Sunday at the start of the UN climate summit COP26 in Glasgow to the British broadcaster BBC.
“To be clear: As long as nobody is injured (…), you have to annoy some people sometimes,” said Thunberg. “The school strike movement would never have become so popular if there had been no friction, if some people hadn’t been pissed off.”
Thunberg criticizes British climate policy
In Great Britain, climate activists who are calling for comprehensive insulation of houses had recently blocked important motorways and thus triggered traffic jams. The government obtained injunctions against the group Insulate Britain and sharply criticized the actions of the demonstrators.
Thunberg arrived in Glasgow on Saturday. Numerous climate activists who also traveled by train to the Scottish city welcomed the 18-year-old enthusiastically. Police officers had to shield them. According to her own statements, the environmentalist was not officially invited to COP26. In Glasgow she wants to lead a climate protest.
Thunberg accused the COP host Great Britain of not taking climate protection seriously enough. “If you see a pattern of political decisions that always avoid taking real action, you can draw conclusions from that pattern. That is, that climate protection is really not the top priority right now,” she said.
The British government recently announced that it would lower taxes on domestic flights. In addition, despite protests, London is sticking to the expansion of a new oil field in the North Sea.