The EU's plan to stop climate change is so weak that it amounts to "surrender", Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has said. Speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels the environmental campaigner said the climate law unveiled by the bloc amounted to "empty words".
"We will not be satisfied with anything less than a science-based pathway that gives us the best possible chance to safeguard the future living conditions for humanity and life on earth as we know it.
"Anything else is surrender: this climate law is surrender, because nature doesn't bargain, and you cannot make deals with physics. We will not allow you to surrender on our future."
The high-profile 17-year old Swedish activist, who has acted as a lightning rod of the climate movement, accused the EU nations of "pretending that you can be a climate leader" while it continues "building and subsidising new fossil fuel infrastructure".
She added: 'We don't just need goals for 2030 or 2050, we above all need them for 2020 and every year to come. We need to start cutting carbon emissions drastically at the source, now. Your distant targets will mean nothing is high emissions continue for business as usual even for just a few more years, because that will use up our remaining carbon budget before you have the chance to even deliver on your 2030 goals."
"When your house is on fire you don't wait a few more years to start putting it out. And yet, this is what the Commission are proposing today," Ms Thunberg said, following a meeting with Commission president Ursula von der Leyen earlier in the day.
"When the EU presents this climate law and net zero by 2050 you indirectly admit surrender: that you are giving up on the Paris agreement, giving up on your promises and giving up on doing everything that you possibly can to ensure a safe future for your children."
The activist added: "Such a law sends a strong signal that real sufficient action is taking place when in fact it is not. The hard truth is that neither the awareness not politics needed are in sight. We are still in a crisis that has never once been treated for a crisis."
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