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Greta Thunberg Calls the EU Out for Its Tricky Climate Numbers
It’s been just over two years since Swedish activist Greta Thunberg began her one-woman “School Strike for Climate” at the age of 15, protesting outside Sweden’s parliament to demand stronger action on climate change. Since then, tens of thousands of people around the world have joined her, and Thunberg has become one of the most prominent voices in a youth-led movement to reverse course on global heating.
She has also become well-known for her scathing, no-holds-barred denunciations of politicians and institutions who ignore or dismiss the claims of scientists. On Sunday, she called out the entire European Union for presenting a misleading plan to reduce carbon emissions. The EU said in September that it would cut emissions by 55% — which sounds pretty good, at first glance — but that number actually represents a 55% reduction from the baseline set in the 1990s, she says. This means “that the 55% reduction target announced by the EU commission, in fact is a 55% minus 23% from 1990s levels reduction until 2030.”
“Based on today’s levels, this would mean an approximate reduction of our emissions by 42%,” Thunberg continues. “And this obviously translates to a serious reduction in ambition.”
Read more from Thunberg, and three other youth climate activists, via their Medium post here:
