Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is not participating in the Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27) talks at the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. The United Nations climate change conference is being held from November 6 to November 18.
Criticising the global summit as a forum for "greenwashing" by corporations and countries, the 19-year-old activist said there was "extremely limited" space for civil society at the forum.
"I'm not going to COP27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is extremely limited," The Guardian quoted Thunberg as saying at London's Southbank Centre on October 31. She said it would be difficult for activists to make their voices heard at the conference this year due to the lack of space.
Egypt has banned public demonstrations and imposed limits on accreditation and attendance badges for activists. This has been a bone of contention at previous UN climate summit as well, according to a Reuters report.
Thunberg said the United Nations climate conference was used by leaders and people in power to attract attention by greenwashing consumers into believing that their products are environmentally friendly.
The activist believes that instead of driving change in the whole system, the conference encouraged gradual progress.
"The COPs are not really working, unless of course we use them as an opportunity to mobilise," Thunberg said. Last year, the activist participated in COP26 at Glasgow.
In 2018, Thunberg became the face of youth activists raising their voice against climate change at the age of 15 by staging school strikes in Sweden.
The 27th edition of the climate summit, which opened on November 6, is not expected to be a pivotal moment in the fight against climate change unlike its predecessors in Kyoto and Paris.
The conference is unlikely to see any dramatic emission-reduction targets or pacts to end fossil-fuel subsidies and coal exports. This is the reason why many activists have argued that the COP conferences have outlived their use, The Star reported.
