What's been happening at the 'longest Climate Change Summit in history'?
Monday, December 16, 2019 @ 1:29 PM
NOW officially the longest in history, the United Nations Climate Change Summit should have ended on Friday – but is still under way today due to the impossibility of reaching an agreement on strategy that will really make a difference with all countries present.
Swedish schoolgirl activist Greta Thunberg would already have been worn out when she arrived, after two weeks on a solar-powered yacht crossing the freezing north Atlantic and then a 10-hour journey by train from Lisbon to Madrid – and now, she says, she is 'tired' and 'needs a rest'.
The 16-year-old who started the Fridays For Future movement over a year ago as a one-girl protest outside Stockholm's national Parliament has done wonders for raising awareness of climate change worldwide, both among her supporters and dissenters – for many, this global phenomenon was about something happening in rainforests and polar regions thousands of kilometres away and which would not be noticed in most adults' lifetimes or, indeed, until their children were very elderly. But Greta's passionate campaigning and demonstration-leading has led to millions of members of the public googling 'climate change' out of curiosity – and being left stunned by what they found.
In the 12 solid days the COP25 Summit has been running in Madrid, leaving country representatives and young adult activists exhausted, solutions have been proposed and rejected, issues raised, unfairness aired, determination to make changes voiced and, in some cases, will become like a New Year's resolution – full of passionate in the moment, but forgotten before the month is out.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com