Greta Thunberg arrives at UN climate talks in Turkey and calls them hypocritical

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived on Tuesday at COP31, the UN climate conference in the Turkish resort city of Antalya. She called the talks hypocritical and pressed leaders to place people and the planet above profit and power. She said host countries get a chance each year to "whitewash themselves" and that the negotiations are filled with lobbyists paid by destructive industries.

Climate change, she said, is "threatening everything." It is her first climate summit since the 2021 talks in Glasgow, where she dismissed leaders' promises as "blah, blah, blah." The conference comes after a year of deadly climate-related disasters, among them floods and heat waves.

The Iran war also caused another energy shock. Turkey and Australia, co-hosts, back renewables and rooftop solar, but both lean heavily on fossil fuels, coal most of all, for their electricity. Earlier hosts Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan are among the major oil producers.

Her arrival excited many youth climate activists. Thunberg is expected to stay for a few days. The talks run until Nov. 20, and COP32 is scheduled for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in November 2027.