Greta Thunberg and about 30 other activists braved freezing temperatures today to protest and call for climate justice as the World Economic Forum wraps up in Davos.

The protesters chanted: “What do we want? climate justice. When do we want it? Now” and “Fossil fuels must be phased out” while Thunberg held up a banner that read “Keep it in the ground.”

Thunberg was in Davos yesterday after a roundtable with the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA). On Wednesday, he was brought in by police in Germany during a demonstration against the expansion of a lignite mine.

On the sidelines of the conference, the 20-year-old Swedish activist insisted on her stance against the development of new oil, gas and coal fields at the event.

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, whose agency provides policy advice, said it would take years for new investment in the oil regions to take effect. They will be too late to alleviate the energy shortage, but they will contribute to the climate crisis. He praised Thunberg’s efforts and thanked her for inviting her to speak to the activists.

At today’s rally, Ugandan Vanessa Nakate, who also took part in a discussion with Birol, said leaders should “listen to the science” and stop all investment in coal, oil and gas.

The IEA has made it crystal clear, he said, that “we cannot make any new investments in fossil fuels if we have to live in temperatures” that will not rise above 1.5 degrees Celsius globally.

Thunberg and other activists issued a “stop and desist” warning to oil and gas executives that they waved during a protest in Davos today.

The oil and gas industry, which accused by activists of monopolizing climate change debate in Swiss ski resortinsists that fossil fuels will continue to play an important role in the energy mix as the world moves towards a low-carbon economy.

In 2019, the then 16-year-old Thunberg took part in the main conference of the Davos Forum, telling the leaders her famous phrase “our house is on fire.” The next year he returned to Davos.

Source: RES-IPE