Thunberg at COP31: "The planet is not dying, it is being killed"

It still causes a stir at climate summits – among the media and its supporters. In the press center of the climate summit in Antalya, a crowd of people has formed around the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. She uses her fame to make her voice heard for companions from Australia, Palestine and Nepal.

Thunberg's own message is not new: the climate crisis is here, the consequences are worse and coming faster than predicted. She makes serious accusations against politicians. "In spaces like these it becomes clearer than ever that the situation could not be less under control. The planet is not dying, it is being killed, and we know by whom."

He is being killed by the very people who one often assumes will come to our aid, she explains. Thunberg accuses the heads of state and government present of acting completely out of touch with reality.

Report urges states to do more climate protection

A report presented at the summit comes to a much more sober and scientifically based conclusion: If countries do not quickly reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases, the world is heading towards permanent global warming of over 1.5 degrees - i.e. above the binding target agreed in Paris in 2015. This is determined by the Climate Action Tracker, which compares national measures and plans with the Paris Agreement.

Niklas Höhne from the NewClimateInstitute, which is working on the report, says: "The positive news is that due to the rapid development of renewable energies and electric cars, heat pumps and other electrical processes, we now actually assume that global emissions will no longer increase from now on."

The negative news, however, is that they remain higher than ever before "and that we are still hurtling toward catastrophic climate change." Specifically, if the global community continues like this, it would end up with a warming of 2.7 degrees compared to pre-industrial times - with unforeseeable consequences.

Progress in renewable energies

There is progress: last year, the global additional electricity demand was met with energy from sun, wind and water. In China and India, the expansion of renewable energies progressed at a record pace. The spread of electric cars reached new highs.

“The question is whether reason will prevail quickly enough, because global greenhouse gas emissions are higher than ever,” said Höhne. That means: "We are accelerating climate change every year because we have such high emissions, and we have to stop climate change." Only when the burning of coal, oil and gas stops will the global temperature stop rising.

Germany is no longer a role model

The struggle to reduce emissions is also taking place in Antalya. According to the report, Germany is no longer a role model: recent government decisions threaten to slow down the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energies and increase emissions. “The measures implemented by the federal government are actually all counterproductive because they lead to more gas heating, more combustion engines and a slow expansion of renewable energies,” says the climate policy expert.

As a possible way out of the climate crisis, the updated Climate Action Tracker report suggests abandoning the use of coal, oil and gas, quickly reducing emissions of the greenhouse gas methane and relying more quickly on renewable energies.