Thunberg asserts that humanity is facing an existential crisis because of global warming[165] and holds the baby boomers, and each subsequent generation, responsible for creating and perpetuating detrimental changes to the Earth's climate.[166] She uses graphic analogies (such as "our house is on fire") to highlight her concerns and often speaks bluntly to business and political leaders about their failure to take concerted action.[167][168]
Thunberg has said that climate change will have a disproportionate effect on young people, whose futures will be profoundly affected. She argues that her generation may not have a future any more because "that future was sold so that a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money."[169] She also has said that people in the Global South will suffer most from climate change, even though they have contributed least in terms of carbon dioxide emissions.[170] Thunberg has voiced support for other young activists from developing countries who are already facing the damaging effects of climate change. Speaking in Madrid in December 2019, she said: "We talk about our future, they talk about their present."[171]
Speaking at international forums, she berates world leaders because she believes that too little action is being taken to reduce global emissions.[172] She says that lowering emissions is not enough, that emissions need to be reduced to zero if the world is to keep global warming to less than 1.5 °C. Speaking to the British Parliament in April 2019, she said: "The fact that we are speaking of 'lowering' instead of 'stopping' emissions is perhaps the greatest force behind the continuing business as usual."[173][174] In order to take the necessary action, she added that politicians should not listen to her, they should listen to what the scientists are saying about how to address the crisis.[175][173] According to political scientists Mattia Zulianello and Diego Ceccobelli, Thunberg's ideas can be defined as technocratic ecocentrism, which is grounded on "the exaltation of the vox scientifica".[176]
More specifically, Thunberg has argued that commitments made at the Paris Agreement are insufficient to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, and that the greenhouse gas emissions curve needs to start declining steeply no later than 2020—as detailed in the IPCC's Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C published in 2018.[177][169] In February 2019, at a conference of the European Economic and Social Committee, she said that the EU's current intention to cut emissions by 40% by 2030 is "not sufficient to protect the future for children growing up today" and that the EU must reduce their CO2 emissions by 80%, double the 40% goal.[178][179]
Thunberg reiterated her views on political inaction in a November 2020 interview where she stated that "leaders are happy to set targets for decades ahead, but flinch when immediate action is needed."[180] She criticized the European Green Deal, which aims to make the EU climate neutral by 2050,[181] saying that it "sends a strong signal that real and sufficient action is being taken when in fact it's not. Nature doesn't bargain, and you cannot make deals with physics."[182]
In July 2020, Greta Thunberg, Luisa Neubauer, Anuna De Wever and Adélaïde Carlier wrote an open letter to all EU leaders and heads of state stating they must "advocate to make ecocide an international crime at the International Criminal Court."[183][184] In June 2023, Greta called the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine by Russia an ecocide and called for prosecution, stating "Russia needs to be held accountable for their action and for their crimes. The eyes of the world are on them now".[185][186]
In an interview shortly before the 2021 COP26 conference in Glasgow, Thunberg, asked how optimistic she was that the conference could achieve anything, responded, "Nothing has changed from previous years, really. The leaders will say, 'we'll do this and we'll do this, and we will put our forces together and achieve this', and then they will do nothing. Maybe some symbolic things and creative accounting and things that don't really have a big impact. We can have as many COPs as we want, but nothing real will come out of it."[38] She called Chinese president Xi Jinping "a leader of a dictatorship" and said that "democracy is the only solution to the climate crisis, since the only thing that could get us out of this situation is ... massive public pressure."[187]
On 30 October 2021, she arrived at Glasgow Central station for the COP26. She spoke at some protests during the COP and marched in a Fridays for Future Scotland climate strike on Friday 5 November; she said in an earlier interview that the public needed to "uproot the system".[188] She delivered a speech to protesters in which she described COP26 as a failure, speaking of "blah blah blah" and greenwashing.[189]
