Greta Thunberg accused Davos billionaires of “fueling the destruction of the planet” as they arrived at the Swiss forum.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg condemned business and political leaders attending the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, saying it was “absurd” to listen to them fuel “the destruction of the planet”.

Two days after police briefly arrested her during a coal mine protest in Germany, Thunberg and other young activists took part in a debate on the sidelines of a summit of global investors, CEOs and political leaders in the Swiss Alps.

“We are now in Davos, where (there) are actually the people who are mainly driving the destruction of the planet,” the 20-year-old said, explaining that the world should not rely on them to solve our problems. .”

She added it was “absurd … it seems we are listening to them rather than the people who are actually affected by the climate crisis.”

Climate activist Greta Thunberg of Sweden speaks alongside (L-R) Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, and climate activists Luise Neubauer of Germany, Helena Gualinga of Ecuador, Vanessa Nakate of Uganda

Two days after police briefly arrested her during a coal mine protest in Germany, Thunberg and other young activists took part in a debate on the sidelines of a summit of global investors, CEOs and political leaders in the Swiss Alps

“Without massive outside public pressure, these people will go as far as they can … They will continue to throw people under the bus for their own benefit,” she said.

The Swede spoke on the sidelines of the WEF with activists Helena Gualinga of Ecuador, Vanessa Nakate of Uganda and Luisa Neubauer of Germany on a CNBC panel that included the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol.

The Swede made headlines when she attended the forum as a teenager in January 2020 and warned that “our house is still on fire” and complained that her demands were “completely ignored”.

The then US President Donald Trump used his speech at the same forum to lash out at “the eternal prophets of doom”, while Thunberg looked on with an icy face from the audience.

This week, she and Gualinga, Nakate and Neubauer started an online petition demanding that energy companies halt new oil, gas or coal mining projects — or take legal action.

As of Thursday, more than 900,000 people had signed the petition.

Thunberg arrived in Davos shortly after being released by German police after protesting the expansion of a coal mine in Germany

“We are on a very dangerous path. We already see local people suffering,” said Gualinga.

“It’s completely insane that we allow this and we have people here in Davos who make it possible through the government by investing in fossil fuels and at some point it has to end. This is criminal behavior,” she said.

Birol, who heads a multilateral energy agency that mainly advises Western governments, said his presence with activists was “a very important signal that I want to send to the world.”

“We must see that more attention must be given to climate change. Unfortunately, attention to climate change is fading,” he said.

The energy sector must be restructured or “we have no chance of achieving our climate goals”.

The IEA said in an October report that the energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had brought about changes that could accelerate the transition to a “more sustainable and secure energy system”.

Thunberg was among a group of people evacuated by police on Tuesday during a demonstration near the German town of Lützerath, which is being demolished for the expansion of a coal mine. They were not officially arrested.

Their actions were praised in Davos by former US Vice President Al Gore, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change.

“I agree with their efforts to stop this coal mine,” Gore told a panel on global warming, adding that young people around the world are desperate for leaders’ efforts to address the climate crisis.

“We are not winning the battle against global warming,” he said.

Climate change is a hot topic at the World Economic Forum, where companies and governments have come under pressure to do more to ensure the world meets the increasingly elusive goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In a speech on Wednesday, UN chief Antonio Guterres drew a parallel between the actions of oil companies and those of tobacco companies, which eventually faced expensive lawsuits over the harmful effects of cigarettes.

Guterres pointed to a study published last week in the journal Science, which found that ExxonMobil rejected the findings of its own scientists, who had accurately predicted global warming from fossil fuels as early as the late 1970s.

“Some of Big Oil peddled the big lie,” he said. “And like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held accountable.”