Not phasing out fossil fuels is ‘death sentence’: Greta Thunberg

Not phasing out fossil fuels is ‘death sentence’: Greta Thunberg

Failure to end use of fossil fuels will be a "death sentence" to millions worldwide, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg warned on Tuesday, urging politicians to take more ambitious action.

"It will be impossible for us to stick to the 1.5-degree limit without a rapid, equitable, fossil fuel phase-out," Thunberg told a press conference.

She was referring to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which world leaders pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to prevent the Earth's annual temperature rising by more than 1.5 to 2.0 degrees Celsius, and thus halt runaway global warming.

"If we don't, it will be a death sentence to countless of people," she said on the sidelines of UN-led climate talks in Bonn.

"It is already a death sentence to countless of people living on the frontlines of the climate crisis."

Scientists and climate activists are pleading for a more rapid expansion of renewables, and a phase out of oil, coal and gas, given the significant proportion of climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions produced by these energy sources.

They want world leaders to agree to phase out fossil fuels at the UN climate negotiations in Dubai (COP28) in late 2023, after failing at their summit in Glasgow in 2021 and again in Sharm-El-Sheikh