Greta’s last speech is a blah blah too
During her last speech in Milan, Greta Thunberg has once again pointed the finger to global leaders for being responsible of the climate crisis. She repeatedly said that their “blah, blah, blah” are just empty words. Actually, she is doing nothing different than that.
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Last Friday, I was in Milan and while waiting to cross the road to the main station, I saw a group of young climate activists standing on the other side of the street. They were holding a banner that stated “COP is a flop”. One of them caught my attention: he was wearing a panda costume while perching on the pole of a traffic light (spot him in the picture!). I was not planning to write about my dearest Greta (again), but I owe it to the panda-guy hanging on the pole.
Last Tuesday, Greta Thunberg took the stage in Milan at the Youth4Climate conference in the context of Pre-COP26. If you know the blah blah story already, feel free to jump to the next paragraph. If you don’t, keep reading.
“Build back better. Blah, blah, blah. Net zero by 2050. Blah, blah, blah. Climate neutral. Blah blah blah,” she said in her well-prepared speech. “This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words that sound great but so far have not led to action. Our hopes and ambitions drown in their empty promises.” And even more, at the end of her keynote she was fiercely asking the public “Did you hear me? What do we want?” and the crowd called back “Climate justice!”. Greta again: “When do we want it?” and the public “Now!”. Standing ovation.
I wrote it already in my previous articles and will iterate once again: Greta is that kind of person who is either hailed or cursed. But whatever side you chose, I think she has the indisputable merit of raising awareness on the issue of climate change and justice. Yet, her last keynote in Milan left me with a bitter taste. This is because the speech was fairly empty content-wise. Since August 2018, the Swedish teenager keeps voicing about politicians’ failure in addressing climate change, but she has never come up with a single concrete proposal to change the status quo. Looking at the Fridays For Future official website, there is absolutely no hint or tip on how to achieve their demands to:
Keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 °C compared to pre-industrial levels.
Ensure climate justice and equity.
Listen to the best united science currently available.
You may question it is not Greta’s role to make proposals. So what is she going to do? Will she keep holding speeches and strikes forever? I think these teenagers have the energy, knowledge, and motivation to do something more than simply voicing their demands.
Now, let’s consider one of those unlucky concepts that ended up in Greta’s blah blah list: climate neutrality. If we look deep into it, we soon understand that is not just words. Let’s be honest. If a company takes voluntary action to measure its greenhouse gas emissions, set reduction targets, and offset unavoidable emissions to become climate neutral, it is doing something more than just talking.
Let me phrase it differently: that company is voluntarily putting a price on its emissions. A price that is written black on white in its balance sheet. Trust me, that company is going to do as much as possible to lower that number. We can discuss whether the price is ambitious enough, but we cannot dispute on the good intentions of that company. This is a voluntary action embraced by individuals while governments are not doing it, despite they should.
And this brings me to the reaction of Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi to Greta’s speech. Mr Mario said that “when you have these transformational changes, it is actually useful to convince people that action is needed”. And added that “leaders are absolutely convinced of the need to act”. In short: governments are ready, individuals are not.
Honestly, I was very surprised. Who is behind those companies that embrace climate action if not people? And even if individuals were not ready, what is the role of a government if not guiding the transition to a low-carbon economy? The truth is that implementing a low-carbon transition will cost a lot. And I have never heard of any politician building consensus under the assumption of taking money out of voters’ pockets – for whatever reason.
Thinking about the panda-guy hanging on the pole, I believe that at least some of us are ready for this transition… just prepare yourself, too!
