Greta Thunberg says she hopes to travel to Glasgow for the COP26 summit despite her initial fears over the UK’s vaccination plan.
The UN climate conference, which will be held in Glasgow this November, is expected to attract leaders and campaigners from across the globe.
Swedish-born activist Greta has become one of the most well-known figures in the fight against climate change after her rousing speeches and protests outside the Swedish parliament in May 2018 captured the world’s attention.
The teenager skipped school to demand her government take action to meet the carbon emissions target agreed by world leaders in 2015, sparking similar protests from schoolchildren across the world.
The 18-year-old, who was named as Time Magazine's 2019 Person of the Year, has since become one of the world’s best-known climate campaigners and her name is now synonymous with environmental events and protests.
But her appearance in Glasgow alongside world leaders and decision-makers at the climate conference was called into question when she hit out against the UK’s vaccine programme.
In a tweet from August she wrote: “Of course I would love to attend the Glasgow #COP26
“But not unless everyone can take part on the same terms. Right now many countries are vaccinating healthy young people, often at the expense of risk groups and front line workers (mainly from global south, as usual...)
“Inequality and climate injustice is already the heart of the climate crisis. If people can’t be vaccinated and travel to be represented equally that’s undemocratic and would worsen the problem.
“Vaccine nationalism won’t solve the pandemic. Global problems need global solutions.
“But if current trends continue and the #cop26 has to be delayed that doesn’t mean we have to delay the urgent action required. We don’t have to wait for conferences nor anyone or anything else to dramatically start reducing our emissions. Solidarity and action can start today.”
Since then, however, the UK government has allowed a relaxation of restrictions on travel and made assurances that all delegates will be vaccinated ahead of the summit.
As a result, Greta has changed her stance, confirming that she will “hopefully attend”.
“I’ve said before that I wasn’t going to go if it wasn’t fair,” she told the Reuters news agency. “But now they say that they will vaccinate all the delegates that are going there. If that’s considered fair and safe, then I will hopefully attend.”
