Greta Thunberg accused governments and institutions of failing to protect people from climate change at the COP31 summit in Antalya, Turkey, on Thursday. Speaking at a packed press conference, the Swedish activist said the planet was “not dying, it is being killed and we know by who”, and urged people to defend human rights when states and other institutions put them at risk.
Thunberg returns to UN climate talks
The conference is Thunberg’s first UN climate summit since COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. In Antalya, she spoke alongside campaigners from Nepal, Australia, Palestine and Canada. The speakers criticised governments’ response to climate change and called for an end to Turkish energy shipments to Israel, linking their climate demands to the war in Gaza.
Nepalese MP Sagar Dhakal described helping to pull people from the debris of a deadly landslide near the border between Nepal and Tibet earlier this year. Indigenous Australian campaigner Rikki Dank spoke about her case before the UN Human Rights Committee concerning Australia’s fossil fuel exports. Thunberg warned that environmental damage could make basic necessities increasingly unaffordable.
Total carbon dioxide emissions set to rise
The remarks came two days after the Global Carbon Project projected a 0.4% decline in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels in 2026. Growth in wind and solar power contributed to the decline, alongside a drop in oil emissions that researchers linked to the energy shock from the Iran conflict.
Including land-use change such as deforestation, global carbon dioxide emissions are projected to rise from 42.8 billion tonnes in 2025 to 43.3 billion tonnes this year. The researchers found that clean energy was still expanding too slowly to sustain a decline in fossil fuel emissions.
National pledges fall short
The UN Environment Programme says current national pledges fall well short of the cuts needed to bring warming back to 1.5°C after an overshoot. COP31 runs until 20 November, with the summit presidency pressing governments to show how they will put existing commitments into practice and measure the results.
Newshub Editorial in Asia – 12 November 2026
Greta Thunberg accused governments and institutions of failing to protect people from climate change at the COP31 summit in Antalya, Turkey, on Thursday. Speaking at a packed press conference, the Swedish activist said the planet was “not dying, it is being killed and we know by who”, and urged people to defend human rights when states and other institutions put them at risk.
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