Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has decided to skip next month's Cop27 ( 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference).
“I’m not going to Cop27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is extremely limited,” she reportedly said during a question and answer at the launch of her latest book at London’s Southbank Centre.
Cop27 is to be held in the Egyptian coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh from November 6-18.
The conference has already drawn flak following a sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola, which has been described as the “world’s top polluter” by an environmental group. The conference has been branded “greenwash” by campaigners.
The Cops are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing,” The Guardian quoted Thunberg as saying.
The Cop conferences, she added, “are not really meant to change the whole system”, but instead encourage gradual progress, the report added.
Thunberg was among those who last week signed a petition by a human rights coalition calling on Egyptian authorities to open up civic space and release political prisoners.
The petition rerportedly had almost a thousand organisational and individual signatories including 350.org, Amnesty International, and Climate Action Network, the world’s largest climate network made up of over 1,500 civil society organisations. Some organisations, including Greenpeace UK, were criticised for not signing the petition.