Greta Thunberg has condemned world leaders for “whatever the f*** they are doing inside there” at the Cop26 climate summit.
The Swedish climate activist said change will not come from the conference im Glasgow as she dismissed policy pledges as “blah blah blah”.
Thunberg, 18, addressed young protesters in Festival Park in Govan, across the River Clyde from the Cop26 venue.
“Change is not going to come from inside there – that is not leadership, this is leadership,” she said.
“We say no more blah blah blah, no more exploitation of people and nature and the planet. No more exploitation. No more blah blah blah. No more whatever the f*** they are doing inside there.”
In September, Thunberg mocked Boris Johnson by quoting parts of his speeches on climate change and adding “blah, blah, blah”.
Johnson referenced the campaigner’s remarks during his speech to the Cop26 opening session.
He said: “I was there in Paris six years ago when we agreed to net zero and to try to restrain the rise in the temperature of the planet to 1.5c, and all those promises will be nothing but blah blah blah – to coin a phrase – and the anger and impatience of the world will be uncontainable unless we make this Cop26 in Glasgow the moment when we get real about climate change.”
Thunberg arrived in Glasgow on Sunday by train and will take part in two large protests through the city later in the week.
Speaking to a large crowd in festival park on the first day of the Cop26 leader’s summit, she said: “This Cop26 is so far just like the previous Cops and that has led us nowhere. They have led us nowhere.
She added: “Inside Cop they are just politicians and people in power pretending to take our future seriously. Pretending to take the present seriously of the people who are being affected already today by the climate crisis.”
Around 120 heads of state and government are attending the world leaders’ summit at the start of the Cop26 talks.
Some countries brought forward new targets to tackle global warming, including India, which announced it would cut emissions to net zero by 2070.
It is significantly later than a global goal to cut emissions to net zero by 2050, which scientists say is necessary to avoid temperature rises above 1.5C and the worst impacts of climate change, and later than other countries, including China, which has said it will achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
There is also pressure on developed countries to deliver a long-promised 100 billion dollars (£73 billion) a year – and more – in climate finance to help poorer nations develop cleanly and deal with the inevitable impacts of a warming planet.
Meanwhile, the Queen has issued a rallying cry to world leaders attending Cop26 – urging them to work together in “common cause” to tackle climate change and “solve the most insurmountable problems”.
In a video message played during a welcoming reception for presidents and prime ministers, she hoped the summit’s legacy would be that they recognised “the time for words has now moved to the time for action”.
The Queen paid a heartfelt tribute to “my dear late husband” the Duke of Edinburgh for his environmental awareness in raising the issue more than 50 years ago.
In a rare public expression of emotion, the monarch said it was a “source of great pride” the important role he played in encouraging people to look after the natural world, and she “could not be more proud” of the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge who have continued his work.
Acknowledging her own mortality, the Queen, whose health has caused concern after she decided not to attend the Glasgow conference when advised by doctors to rest, said not all would benefit from the leaders’ actions as “none of us will live forever”.
But any determination to confront the planet’s environmental problems would benefit “our children’s children”.
