‘Greta Mania’ hits Glasgow as Swedish teen is mobbed upon arrival for COP26 summit
By Karla Adam,
Dylan Martinez Reuters
GLASGOW — Greta Thunberg may not have been officially invited to the landmark COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, but on the first official day of the conference, she was making her presence known.
The Swedish teenager, who is something of a rock star for climate activists around the world, was quickly surrounded by about a hundred people when she arrived at the Glasgow train station Saturday evening. Several police officers escorted her away from the throng.
“Finally in Glasgow for the COP26! And thank you for the very warm welcome,” tweeted the 18-year-old who included a picture of her giving a thumbs-up to the assembled crowd. Scotland’s Sunday Mail newspaper dubbed the scene: “Greta Mania.”
Thunberg traveled to Glasgow from London, where she had taken part in a protest demanding that financial institutions stop funding fossil fuel extraction.
Thousands of activists from around the world are descending on Glasgow for the U.N. Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, which officially kicks off on Sunday. They want world leaders to take bold action to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 Celsius above preindustrial levels.
[What you need to know about the U.N. COP26 climate summit — and why it matters]
Thunberg is expected to take part in a demonstration on Nov. 5 organized by the Scottish arm of Fridays for Future, the student movement Thunberg founded in 2018.
In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr that will air Sunday, Thunberg said she hadn’t “officially” been invited to speak at the conference.
“I think that many people might be scared that if they invite too many radical young people, then that might make them look bad,” she told Marr in a preview clip. She raised her fingers to make air quotes when she said the word “radical.”
She told Marr that the conference needed “more representation from the so-called global south, from the most affected people and areas.
“It’s not fair, when, for example, one country sends lots and lots of delegates, and then another country is very underrepresented. That already creates an imbalance, and climate justice is at the very heart of this crisis. … As long as we keep ignoring the historical responsibility of the countries of the global north, and as long as we continue to ignore it, the very negotiations will not have a successful outcome.”
The COP26 Coalition, which represents a number of groups including youth strikers, trade unions and faith groups, has called the climate summit “the most exclusionary in history, with thousands blocked from making their voices heard.” They said that people have been kept from getting to Glasgow by a range of obstacles, including lack of access to vaccines and travel and accommodation costs.
About 25,000 international guests are expected to attend the summit — Downing Street said it was one of the largest events the U.K. has ever hosted — and prices for some short-term rental rooms have soared. One American delegate shared on social media his exchange with a property owner who asked for an extra $2,000 after realizing that the rental period overlapped with the summit.
More than 100 world leaders are expected in Glasgow for meetings on Monday and Tuesday, with some flying in from Rome where they gathered for the G-20 summit.
On the eve of the summit, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that COP26 would be the “world’s moment of truth.”
“The question everyone is asking is whether we seize this moment or let it slip away,” he added.
