Greta Thunberg said her calls to the corporate elite meeting in Davos to disinvest immediately in fossil fuels were ignored.
All IndiaEdited by Vaibhav Tiwari (with inputs from AFP)Updated: January 24, 2020 19:26 IST
Davos: Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has a message for India- “listen to science”. Responding to an NDTV question on the last day of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, Ms Thunberg said the impact of climate change in India is as devastating as it is anywhere in the world.
At a press conference in the Swiss ski resort, Ms Thunberg, 17, who over the years has emerged as the global climate change ambassador, said her calls to the corporate elite meeting in Davos to disinvest immediately in fossil fuels were ignored.
“We had a few demands (coming into the World Economic Forum). Of course these demands have been completely ignored. We expected nothing less,” Ms Thunberg was quoted by news agency AFP as saying.
Ms Thunberg, who has had several Twitter clashes with United States President Donald Trump in the last few months, drew massive attention at the conference. In response to Ms Thunberg’s demand of stopping investment on fossil fuel, US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a sharp jibe on Thursday, said she should study economics in college.
“Is she the chief economist? Who is she? I’m confused,” he had said, adding, “After she goes and studies economics in college, she can come back and explain that to us.”
Asked about Mr Mnuchin’s comments, Ms Thunberg said: “Of course it has no effect. We are being criticised like that all the time.”
“If we cared about that, we would not be able to do what we do. We put ourselves in the spotlight.”
Mr Trump and Ms Thunberg made only veiled references to each other in their speeches at the conference.
While President Trump suggested that the world reject “perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse”, the teen scoffed at planting more trees, which had been his suggestion. Planting trees was not enough to address climate change, Greta Thunberg said, adding, “Our house is still on fire”.
