Get you up to speed: ‘Everything and everyone we love is at stake’: Thunberg slams COP31 talks
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg condemned the United Nations climate talks as hypocritical during her arrival at the COP31 conference in Antalya, Turkey. She urged world leaders to prioritise people and the planet over profits amidst ongoing climate-related challenges.
The COP31 conference in Antalya will continue until November 20, 2026, with plans for COP32 to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in November 2027. The event is co-hosted by Turkiye and Australia, both of which are promoting renewable energy, despite their significant reliance on coal for electricity generation.
Greta Thunberg has called for world leaders to prioritise people and the planet over profits during her arrival at COP31, describing the talks as hypocritical and highlighting the influence of lobbyists from destructive industries. The conference, taking place in Antalya until 20 November, has generated excitement among youth climate activists, with calls for meaningful change and a commitment to climate finance from world leaders.
What remains unclear — It is uncertain how the COP31 co-hosts plan to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy while still relying heavily on coal.
Thunberg criticises COP31 negotiations, urging leaders to prioritise planet over profit
News|Climate Crisis‘Everything and everyone we love is at stake’: Thunberg slams COP31 talks
Climate activist urges world leaders to put people and planet before profit as she arrives at UN climate talks.
Published On 11 Nov 202611 Nov 2026
Published On 11 Nov 202611 Nov 2026Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has condemned the United Nations climate talks as hypocritical and urged world leaders to put people and planet ahead of profits and power.
Thunberg made the comments on Tuesday as she arrived at the COP31 conference in the Turkish resort city of Antalya.
“It’s a hypocrisy every year that the host countries are given an opportunity to whitewash themselves and we know that these negotiations are filled with lobbyists, paid by the very destructive industries which are benefiting from our extremely violent status quo,” Thunberg said.
“Our political and economic systems that have become incompatible with human nature.”
The talks follow a year of deadly climate-related disasters, including heatwaves and floods, and another energy shock caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.
COP31 co-hosts Turkiye and Australia are promoting renewable energy and rooftop solar installations, but both still rely heavily on fossil fuels, especially coal, to generate electricity. Previous hosts, including Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan, are major oil producers.
Climate change is “threatening everything”, Thunberg said, warning that “everything and everyone we love is at stake”.
“We should act to protect and benefit people rather than constantly sacrificing the global majority and the very planet we are all living on, for a fortunate few to keep making unimaginable profits and maintaining geopolitical power,” she said.
Thunberg rose to prominence in 2018 as a 15-year-old, when she began a solitary “School Strike for Climate” outside the Swedish parliament.
The Antalya summit is the first she has attended since the 2021 talks in Glasgow, Scotland, where she dismissed world leaders’ promises as “blah, blah, blah”.
She has also campaigned for other causes, including the Free Palestine movement, and more recently backed French students protesting for more school resources.
Her arrival in Antalya has created excitement among many of the youth climate activists at COP31 who are demanding more climate finance.
“I hope that Greta’s presence here reminds us of why we started this work in the first place: to push for meaningful change, hold decision-makers accountable, and work towards a better future for all of humanity,” Amber Turner, a 26-year-old fellow with the Alliance of Small Island States, told The Associated Press news agency.
Qiyun Woo, a youth environmentalist from Singapore, said Thunberg’s “powerful” presence “adds to calls from a generation that inherits the consequences of these negotiations”.
COP31 runs in Antalya until November 20.
Next year’s edition, COP32, is scheduled to take place in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, in November 2027.