Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg slammed Joe Biden in an interview Monday, saying it's 'strange' to consider the president a climate change leader 'when you see what his administration is doing'.
Thunberg, 18, alleged Biden's Administration has actually taken actions that worsen the climate crisis despite having promised to combat climate change as part of his Clean Energy Revolution plan.
'The US is actually expanding fossil fuel infrastructure. Why is the US doing that?' Thunberg questioned, speaking to KK Ottesen of the Washington Post.
The outspoken Swedish student also blasted the world's climate leaders for putting the responsibility of fighting for the environment on the youth.
'It should not fall on us activists and teenagers who just want to go to school to raise this awareness and to inform people that we are actually facing an emergency,' she added.
The Biden Administration has set out ambitious goals to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, including reaching 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 and net-zero emissions by 2050.
However, the president has been battling a pandemic-caused surge in gas prices, which has led to an increase in global oil production. He also has not yet followed through on his campaign promise to crack down on new oil and gas leasing on federal lands.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg (pictured at the COP26 summit in Nov. 2021) slammed Joe Biden is an interview Monday, saying it's 'strange' to consider the president a climate change leader 'when you see what his administration is doing
Thunberg's anger at world leaders is not limited to the Biden Administration.
She blasted last month's United Nations climate summit, known as COP26, as being a 'PR event' and a 'failure'.
Thunberg cited how leaders were unable to secure funding for the Green Climate Fund, which was created to support the efforts of developing countries in responding to the challenge of climate change.
'The money that has already been promised, the bare minimum that the so-called global north have promised that they will deliver, they failed to come to any conclusions, and it’s been postponed once again,' argued Thunberg, who has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in each of the past three years.
She noted that UN leaders made some progress at the summit - citing how they included fossil fuels in their final document for the first time - but still need to do more.
'Of course it’s a step forward that, instead of coming back every five years, they’re doing it every year now,' Thunberg said.
Thunberg alleged Biden's Administration has actually taken actions that worsen the climate crisis despite the having promised to combat climate change as part of his Clean Energy Revolution plan (Pictured: Joe Biden on Dec. 27, 2021)
She blasted the United Nations climate summit, known as COP26 (pictured), as being a 'PR event' and 'failure'
She added: 'But still, that doesn’t mean anything unless that actually leads to increased ambition and if they actually fulfill those ambitions.'
Thunberg also argued that 'we need to fundamentally change our societies now,' alleging that people are too focused on the present and not motivated to find solutions for the future.
'Right now, what’s holding us back is that we lack that political will. We don’t prioritize the climate today.
'Our goal is not to lower emissions. Our goal is to find solutions that allow us to continue life [as it is] today,' she said.
Thunberg continued: 'And, of course, you can ask, “Can’t we have both?” But the uncomfortable truth is that we have left it too late for that. Or the world leaders have left it too late for that.'
'We need to fundamentally change our societies now. If we would have started 30 years ago, it would have been much smoother. But now it’s a different situation.'
Despite Thunberg - who led a 100,000-strong march through the streets of Glasgow during the first week of the COP26 summit - dismissing the two-week meet as a 'greenwashing festival,' some experts are applauding the work UN leaders achieved.
But dedicated experts in the negotiating arena hailed solid and historic advances in beating back the existential threat of global warming.
'The Glasgow Climate Pact is more than we expected, but less than we hoped for,' Dann Mitchell, head of climate hazards at Britain's Met Office, told AFP.
Some argue gauging the efficacy of measures announced at the summit is dependent on the lens they're examined through.
For example - in comparison to what was achieved before - the first-ever call by 196 countries to draw down coal-fired power or a promise to double financial aid each year to roughly $40 billion so poor nations can brace for climate impacts, are giant steps forward.
As is the new provision obliging countries to consider setting more ambitious targets for reducing carbon pollution every year rather than once every five years.
'As a lifelong optimist, I see the Glasgow outcome as half-full rather than half-empty,' said Alden Meyer, a senior analyst at climate and energy think tank E3G.
'But the atmosphere responds to emissions - not COP decisions - and much work remains ahead to translate the strong rhetoric here into reality.'
'Make no mistake, we are still on the road to hell,' said Dave Reay, head of the University of Edinburgh's Climate Change Institute.
'But Glasgow has at least created an exit lane.'
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