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05th Nov 2021

Greta Thunberg leads climate protest through streets of Glasgow

Katy Brennan

“We don’t need any more empty promises.”

Thousands of people have taken part in a major climate demonstration across Glasgow city, coinciding with COP26.

The climate conference has now reached its sixth day, as negotiations between countries continue and world leaders address the devastating impact of climate change.

The ongoing talks were referred to by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as a “greenwashing campaign” earlier this week.

The landmark protest, which was organised by the Fridays for Future movement, was expected to see crowds of 50,000 people and has caused major traffic delays and road closures within the city.

Addressing the crowd in a powerful speech, Greta said:

“The climate and ecological crisis does not exist in a vacuum. The crisis is based on the idea that some people are worth more than others and have the right to steal their land and resources.

“The question we must ask ourselves is what is it we are fighting for? Are we fighting to save ourselves and the living planet or are we fighting to keep business as usual?

“The people in power can continue to live in their fantasies. All this while our world is burning, on fire and the people on the front line are still bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. History will judge them poorly and we will not accept it.

“We don’t need anymore empty promises… that are full of loopholes. They have had 26 COPS, they have had decades of blah blah blah and where has that left us?

“All this while the media is reporting what people in power say they’re going to do rather than what they will actually do. The media fails to hold people in power accountable.

“Some people say we are being too radical. Fighting to save our life… is not radical. Out here we speak the truth, the people in power are obviously scared of the truth.”

One young protestor told the BBC that the demonstration was being held “to hold our leaders to account”.

“We’re going to be doing a lot of shouting because they [world leaders] clearly aren’t listening at all,” he said.

“The faith of young people in leaders has never been lower and rightfully so,” another added. “It is not just the youth here today, everyone is protesting the action on climate.”