Greta Thunberg returns to UN climate summit after years of pro-Palestinian activism

Greta Thunberg arrived Tuesday at the United Nations climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, returning to the annual talks for the first time since 2021 and warning that climate change threatens “everything and everyone we love.”

Speaking to reporters at COP31, the Swedish activist said governments must put people and the planet ahead of financial interests and geopolitical power. “We should act to protect and benefit people rather than constantly sacrificing the global majority and the very planet we are all living on, for a fortunate few to keep making unimaginable profits and maintaining geopolitical power,” she said.

This year’s summit comes after another year marked by climate-driven heat waves and other natural disasters. Israel has no delegation at the conference because of security considerations.

It is Thunberg’s first appearance at a UN climate summit since COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, where she famously dismissed world leaders’ climate pledges as “blah, blah, blah.” In 2024, she joined a protest in Georgia against Azerbaijan’s hosting of that year’s climate conference, accusing Baku of using the event to “greenwash their crimes and human rights abuses.”

Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Thunberg has also become a prominent pro-Palestinian activist and an outspoken critic of Israel. She has regularly attended pro-Palestinian demonstrations and has often worn a keffiyeh at rallies and public events.

Her activism has also brought her into direct confrontation with Israel. She joined a Gaza-bound flotilla, was detained after Israeli forces intercepted the vessel and was later deported from Israel.

At the Antalya summit Tuesday, however, Thunberg arrived without the keffiyeh she has frequently worn at pro-Palestinian events, instead flashing a V sign as she entered the conference venue.

Thunberg is expected to participate in the summit for several days. She said addressing the climate crisis will require structural changes around the world, arguing that current political and economic systems “have become incompatible with human nature.”