[CROWD CHEERING]
- Swedish activist Greta Thunberg signed an open letter
with thousands of others on Thursday
urging European leaders to take emergency
action on climate change.
The 17-year-old also accused some people
in power of practically "giving up"
on the possibility of handing over a decent future
to coming generations.
She said authorities would only start a meaningful response
to climate change once they accepted they had to transform
the whole economic system.
GRETA THUNBERG: We need to see it as, above all,
an existential crisis.
And as long as it's not being treated as a crisis,
we can have as many of these climate
change negotiations and talks, conferences as possible.
It won't change a thing.
- The letter was made public on Thursday,
a day before a European Council summit where
EU countries will try to reach a deal on the bloc's next budget.
Demands in the letter include an immediate halt
to investment in fossil fuel exploration and extraction.
It also called for binding annual "carbon budgets"
to limit how much greenhouse gas countries can emit.
And it wants leaders to develop climate policies designed
to protect workers and reduce economic, racial,
and gender inequalities.