Thunberg arrives at COP31 in Antalya, calls summits 'greenwashed circuses'

Greta Thunberg arrived in the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya on Tuesday for the COP31 United Nations climate summit and called the annual talks "greenwashed circuses", her first appearance at the conference since Glasgow in 2021.

"COPs have become greenwashed circuses. That is the reality," Thunberg told reporters gathered for her arrival, according to CNA. She arrived late to the talks.

She said the meetings still had value as a place to organise. "Of course it is absolutely crucial that we still do everything we possibly can because this is an opportunity to mobilise people," she said. "We are here as activists to push those people in power to actually implement what they have been talking about for decades and decades."

Thunberg said the process could not by itself prevent the worst warming. "And we also need to acknowledge that the COPs are not sufficient to prevent a climate catastrophe," she said, pointing to recent disasters that scientists and people living on the front lines had warned about for decades.

She also criticised the host government. "We cannot be blind to the fact that the host country, Türkiye, is violating many basic human rights," she said, in CNA's account.

South China Morning Post reported her arrival remarks with a different emphasis, quoting her saying climate change is "threatening everything" and that "everything and everyone we love is at stake". The Guardian carried the same line in its live coverage of the summit. SCMP gave her age as 23.

The Guardian's live blog reported that the host country was celebrating new oilfields as the summit prepared to receive world leaders from more than 90 countries. It also reported John Kerry, the former US secretary of state and climate envoy, congratulating Brazil for keeping the fossil fuel transition issue alive, and former UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa addressing the venue.

CNA reported that many climate activists have grown disillusioned with a process that has produced few major breakthroughs in recent years, with fossil fuel-producing nations often holding up proceedings and action on cutting emissions.

Observers expect few significant developments from COP31, CNA reported, as countries grapple with an oil price shock and geopolitical tensions fuelled by the US war with Iran and Russia's conflict in Ukraine.