"Pure greenwashing"

Greta Thunberg criticizes climate conference in Baku

Climate activist Greta Thunberg

(Bild: AFP/Piero Cruciatti)

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has sharply criticized the ongoing UN World Climate Conference. "This summit, like the one before it, is a pure act of greenwashing," wrote the 21-year-old. Azerbaijan's entire economy is based on the fossil fuels oil and gas.

Contrary to what it claims, the government there has no ambitions to protect the climate. Instead, it is planning to expand oil and gas production, which is completely incompatible with the goals of the Paris Agreement and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Thunberg wrote this in a commentary in the British newspaper "Guardian".

The regime in Baku is desperately trying to whitewash the picture. The climate activist also accused the authoritarian leadership of trampling on human rights, among other things. For example, the holding of peaceful protests is being made more difficult and the country's own population is being oppressed.

Here you can see Thunberg's post on Platform X.

Schilling wants to meet political prisoners
Thunberg is currently in neighboring Georgia, but is not planning to attend COP29, which began today, Monday. 

Austria's MEP Lena Schilling (Greens) expressed similar concerns. "We must not allow fossil fuel autocrats to use the climate conference to burnish their international image while they continue to trample on human rights and further fuel the climate crisis," she said in a statement. Together with nine other EU parliamentarians, Schilling wants to meet political prisoners in Azerbaijan as well as the local Minister of Justice, Farid Ahmadov.

The three prisoners to whom the politicians want access are the environmental activist Anar Mammadli, the journalist Nargiz Absalamova and the economist and critic of his country's oil and gas industry, Gubad Ibadoghlu.