Greta Thunberg Thanks OPEC Chief For Complaining About ‘Threat’ Of Climate Activists

The Independent - Emma Snaith

Fossil fuel industry leader worries about ‘mass mobilisation of world opinion against oil’


Greta Thunberg thanks OPEC chief for complaining about ‘threat’ of climate activists

Climate change activist Greta Thunberg has welcomed criticism from a fossil fuel industry chief that environment campaigners pose “perhaps the greatest threat” to the oil sector.
The 16-year-old founder of the “School Strike 4 Climate’ movement described the comments made by the leader the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as their “biggest compliment yet”.
It comes after energy ministers from 13 of the world’s most powerful oil-producing nations met in Austria to thrash out a deal restricting the amount of oil flowing into the global market to boost demand.
Speaking after the meeting earlier this week, general secretary Mohammed Barkindo said that “there is a growing mass mobilisation of world opinion… against oil”.
He said: “Civil society is being misled to believe oil is the cause of climate change.”

In the protest that started a movement, Greta skips school to sit outside of the Swedish parliament in Stockholm in order to raise awareness of climate change on 28 August 2018 Getty

Additional Images:

• Greta stages a protest at the World Economic Forum in Davos on 25 January Reuters
• Greta speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos on 25 January AFP/Getty
• Greta attends a meeting for the Civil Society For rEUnaissance at the EU Charlemagne Building in Brussels on 21 February AFP/Getty
• Greta addresses a children's climate protest on 1 March in Hamburg Getty
• Greta attends a children's climate protest in Berlin on 29 March AFP/Getty
• Greta receives the Special Climate Protection Award at the German Film and Television awards in Berlin on 30 March AFP/Getty
• Greta addresses a debate of the EU Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 16 April AFP/Getty
• Greta addresses to the occupation at Marble Arch in London on 21 April AFP/Getty
• Greta speaks at the House of Commons in London on 23 April PA
• Greta speaks at the senate in Rome on 18 April Reuters
• Greta meets the Pope on a visit to Rome Reuters

Mr Barkindo complained of “unscientific” attacks on the oil industry by climate change campaigners, describing them as “perhaps the greatest threat to our industry going forward”.
He said the children of some colleagues at OPEC’s headquarters ”are asking us about their future because … they see their peers on the streets campaigning against this industry”.
His comments appeared to be in reference to Ms Thunberg’s school strike movement, which began after the teenage activist started skipping classes to protest outside the Swedish parliament.
Her protest inspired millions of other children around the world to walk out school on Fridays to demand greater action on climate change.

“There is a growing mass mobilisation of world opinion... against oil" and this is "perhaps the greatest threat to our industry".
OPEC calls the school strike movement and climate campaigners their “greatest threat”.

Thank you! Our biggest compliment yet!https://t.co/f3anMLo4XX

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) July 4, 2019

Mr Barkindo added that the changing attitudes towards fossil fuels were ”beginning to ... dictate policies and corporate decisions, including investment in the industry”.
In response to Mr Barkindo’s comments, Ms Thunberg tweeted: “OPEC calls the school strike movement and climate campaigners their ‘greatest threat’.

“Thank you! Our biggest compliment yet!”
Bill McKibben, the founder of the climate group 350.org which calls for 100 per cent renewable energy, also welcomed Mr Barkindo’s comments.
He tweeted: “Wow! Wow! Wow! ...Thanks everyone for your good work!”
The OPEC chief’s comments come nearly a year after the UN released its landmark IPCC report that found we have 11 years to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5C to limit the worst effects of climate change.
Since then, the Extinction Rebellion movement brought parts of London to a standstill in April to demand action on climate change. And MPs voted to declare a climate emergency in May.
In the US, Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez submitted her Green New Deal proposal to the US House of Representatives in February. The deal, which calls for the achievement of “net-zero” greenhouse gases within a decade and “a full transition off fossil fuels, has received the backing of Democratic presidential candidates including Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris.
OPEC is an intergovernmental organisation made up of 13 nations which seeks to coordinate oil prices to stabilise the market. Among its member nations are Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Nigeria.

Links

• When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Met Greta Thunberg: 'Hope Is Contagious'
• Students From 1,600 Cities Just Walked Out Of School To Protest Climate Change. It Could Be Greta Thunberg's Biggest Strike Yet
• ‘Now I Am Speaking To The Whole World.’ How Teen Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Got Everyone To Listen
• The Uncanny Power Of Greta Thunberg’s Climate-Change Rhetoric
• The Guardian View On Greta Thunberg: Seizing The Future
• Greta Thunberg Backs Climate General Strike To Force Leaders To Act
• Humanity Is At A Crossroads, Greta Thunberg Tells Extinction Rebellion