Greta Thunberg spoke today at the Assemblée Nationale, the French parliament. “You don't want to listen to us? Fine. But listen to the scientists”.
"They say we young people exaggerate. That we are alarmists. In response, I recommend reading the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Ipcc): it contains everything we are claiming." Greta Thunberg appeared today with these words before the French parliament. Without any fear. Despite the fierce controversy that preceded her address to the Assemblée Nationale.
Having already spoken before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the young Swedish activist was also invited to Paris. The initiative came from deputy Matthieu Orphelin, a close ally of former Minister for Ecological Transition Nicolas Hulot and a former member of President Emmanuel Macron's party, En Marche — which he left owing to government action he considered wholly inadequate in the face of the climate crisis.
"The greatest danger is not that of failing to act. The greatest danger is when politicians and businesses pretend to act," the activist charged. She then urged wealthy countries "to reach zero emissions as quickly as possible, so that poorer ones can also build the infrastructure we already have."
Greta Thunberg was granted permission to speak in the largest room of the Palais-Bourbon, outside the hemicycle. With her were three young French activists from the Youth for Climate movement: Ivy Fleur, Virgile Mouquet and Alicia Arquetoux. Also present was climatologist and Ipcc member Valérie Masson-Delmette.
Before her arrival, however, Greta Thunberg was the target of fierce attacks from a considerable number of French parliamentarians. "I am calling on my fellow deputies to boycott her at the Assemblée Nationale. To fight intelligently against climate change, we do not need apocalyptic gurus but progress and political courage," Guillaume Larrivé of the conservative party Les Républicains said last Saturday.
Julien Aubert, a member of the same group, described the Swedish activist as "a prophet in shorts", also calling her the "Nobel Prize for fear". Meanwhile a far-right deputy, Sébastien Chenu, put it this way: "I refuse to prostrate myself before a 16-year-old child."
Similarly, two members of the governing majority, both from En Marche, Bénédicte Peyrol and Jean-Baptiste Moreau, explained respectively that they reject "Manichean approaches that do not allow one to act in a complex world" and that they do not accept "a politics governed by emotions, driven by panic-inducing appeals from Greta Thunberg."
Former minister Hulot responded by explaining that one must not "insult youth and the future. Arrogance must not drown out the voices of those who have every right to speak. People who, with courage and clear-headedness, confront us with our responsibilities." And Thunberg, speaking before dozens of parliamentarians, commented: "Some people have chosen not to come to this meeting today. They have chosen not to listen. That is not so serious — after all, we are only youngsters, you are under no obligation to hear our views. However, you do have a duty to listen to the scientists. And that is all we are asking of you."
