London, Nov. 11, (dpa/GNA) – Climate activist Greta Thunberg hit out at the annual UN Climate Change Conference being held in Baku this year as a “dark joke” in an article published in Britain’s Guardian daily on Monday.
In the article entitled “A ‘Cop of peace’? How can authoritarian, human rights-trashing Azerbaijan possibly host that?” the 21-year-old activist described the summit as “a mere act of greenwashing.”
She noted that Azerbaijan’s entire economy was built on fossil fuels, which accounted for close to 90% of the country’s exports. “Despite what it might claim, Azerbaijan has no ambition to take climate action,” she said.
The country was planning to expand fossil fuel production, she said, adding that this was completely incompatible with the 1.5 degree Celsius limit of the Paris Climate Accords.
She also lashed out at Azerbaijan’s human rights record, saying that many attending the conference were scared to criticize the government.
“The Azerbaijan regime is guilty of ethnic cleansing, humanitarian blockades and war crimes, as well as repressing its own population and cracking down on the country’s civil society,” Thunberg wrote.
She is currently in Georgia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour to the west, but is not planning to travel to Baku for the conference. She will instead travel to Armenia at some point.
GNA