--- title: "Greta Thunberg Says UN Climate Conference Is a Scam and She’s Not Attending" description: "The UN's upcoming COP27 climate conference in Egypt is basically a \"greenwashing\" waste of time, according to Greta Thunberg, who says she won't be going." date: "2022-11-02" modified: "2022-11-02" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/greta-thunberg-un-climate-conference" categories: - "Climate Change" - "Environment" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "climate change" - "climate conference" - "greta thunberg" - "the digest" --- # Greta Thunberg Says UN Climate Conference Is a Scam and She’s Not Attending ![The UN's upcoming COP27 climate conference in Egypt is basically a "greenwashing" waste of time, according to Greta Thunberg, who says she won't be going.]() *LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 27: Climate activist Greta Thunberg poses for a portrait in front of the global warming stripes graphic created by climatologist Ed Hawkins which appears on the cover of Greta’s new book at Natural History Museum on June 27, 2022 in London, England. Thunberg teamed up with the Natural History Museum to produce an event for school students centred around biodiversity loss, one of the themes of her forthcoming book, The Climate Book. (Photo by Tim Whitby/Getty Images) \Image: Getty Images\* ## COP Out Ever since she [lambasted world leaders]() at a UN conference in 2018 when she was only 15 years old, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has had the ear of the international community. Now, Thunberg says she's skipping out on next week's COP27 UN climate summit in Egypt. Why? Because it's rife with "greenwashing." "I'm not going to COP27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is extremely limited," Thunberg said at a press event for her book, "The Climate Book," [as quoted by *The Guardian*](). "The COPs are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing." Ultimately, in Thunberg's view, the COP conferences "are not really meant to change the whole system" and instead only promote incremental change. Bluntly put, they're feel-good events that don't accomplish much, so she's bowing out. ## Wasted Breath It's not an unfair assessment. For all the pledges made to drastically cut back emissions and achieve [net carbon zero]() by 2050, [very few nations have followed through in the short term](). And in Europe, the [energy crisis]() in the wake of the war in Ukraine has further sidelined those climate commitments. So we can't blame her for not going. But it's a bit disheartening that even a tenacious young spokesperson like Thunberg has given up on convincing world leaders at the biggest climate summit in the world. Maybe it's indicative of the frustrations of her generation at large. When Thunberg was asked what she thought about the recent wave of Just Stop Oil protests that included [activists throwing soup on a Van Gogh painting](), she said that she viewed what many detractors perceived as a dumb stunt to be symptomatic of the world's failure to effect meaningful environmental change. "People are trying to find new methods because we realize that what we have been doing up until now has not done the trick," she replied, [as quoted by *Reuters*](). "It's only reasonable to expect these kinds of different actions." Maybe the real question is: if even a UN climate conference isn't the place to get the message out and change hearts, where's the right place, and what's the right way? If the headlines are any indication, zoomers are struggling to figure that out. **More on Greta Thunberg:** *[Greta Thunberg Thinks Germany Shutting Down Its Nuclear Plants Is a Bad Idea]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()