Greta Thunberg dismisses Cop26 as more ‘blah, blah, blah’

‘The real work continues outside these halls’

Greta Thunberg speaks to the crowd in George Square the end point for the Fridays For Future rally in Glasgow, Scotland. (AFP via Getty Images)

Greta Thunberg dismissed the Cop26 climate summit as more “blah, blah, blah” after the extended talks finally brought to a close with the agreement of the Glasgow Climate Pact on Saturday.

Taking to Twitter to express her disdain, the Swedish climate activist urged protestors to “never give up” – saying “the real work continues outside these halls.”

It comes after China and India made a last-minute intervention to water down language in the final text on coal. The language was changed to “phase down” on unabated coal power instead of the stronger “phase out”.

Several countries made angry statements following the sudden intervention. Mexico called it a “non-inclusive and non-transparent process”.

Ms Thunberg wrote: The #COP26 is over. Here’s a brief summary: Blah, blah, blah.

“But the real work continues outside these halls. And we will never give up, ever.”

The comments were made alongside a tweet she wrote the previous Sunday, which reads: “Unless we achieve immediate, drastic, unprecedented, annual emission cuts at the source then that means we’re failing when it comes to this climate crisis. “Small steps in the right direction”, “making some progress” or “winning slowly” equals loosing. #COP26#UprootTheSystem

Meanwhile, the Cop26 president has denied the climate pact agreed by world leaders was a failure and defended the “historic” language on a commitment to reduce coal dependence.

“This is the first time ever that we have got language about coal in a Cop decision – I think that is absolutely historic,” Alok Sharma told BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show.

Asked if the pact amounted to a failure to meet ambitions, Mr Sharma said: “I wouldn’t describe what we did yesterday as a failure. It’s a historic achievement. We kept 1.5 in reach.”

On being reduced almost to tears at the close of the conference as he apologised for the way a final change to the Glasgow Pact had been carried out, Mr Sharma said he was emotional after getting very little sleep in the final days of the Cop26.

He said: “In terms of what happened yesterday, we managed to get an enormous amount over the line.

“On a personal level, I have invested enormous amounts of the last two years into this.

“I’ve been out to see countries, talked to people on the front line of climate change, and of course I’d had about six hours sleep in 72 hours previously, so it was an emotional moment.”

Mr Sharma said it had been his job to “build consensus” on the final deal, as he denied the Glasgow Pact had ended in failure.