Swedish activist, Activist
Greta Thunberg: 'treat the climate crisis like a real crisis' | FT
Environmental activist Greta Thunberg talks to the FT's Leslie Hook about her future beyond climate strikes; her neutrality towards business and politics; and her frustration with climate conferences. Read more at https://on.ft.com/3cIF8tD
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About Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg spoke at the Tech for Palestine Brussels Conference in April and June 2026, where she discussed the connection between climate activism and other social justice issues, including Palestine. She stated that the same values drive her activism for the climate and for Palestine, describing them as part of a fight against the same system that exploits people and nature. Thunberg argued that climate activists cannot ignore injustices such as the situation in Gaza, and she criticized what she described as the complicity of governments, institutions, and companies in enabling genocide. She also said that accusations of antisemitism are used to water down the term and to silence criticism of Israeli policies. In interviews, Thunberg addressed the relationship between ecocide and genocide, stating that the destruction of ecosystems and people's means to survive are methods of oppression. She named Swedish officials and companies, including Vice Prime Minister Ebba Busch and Spotify founder Daniel Ek, as examples of those she believes are enabling the conflict. Thunberg also discussed her personal habits, noting that she does not buy new clothes and prefers receiving socks as gifts. She described herself as autistic and said that people sometimes perceive her as serious and angry, though she noted that her friend calls the "Greta effect" a regression of humor to that of a 12-year-old boy.
Transcript (38 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
I
Interviewer0:07
Hi, Greta. Thanks again for joining us. I'd like to just begin by asking a bit about what your life is like right now. I know you're back in school. And obviously, it's still a time of coronavirus. Are you still able to get out and protest?
G
Greta Thunberg0:25
We could do that, but we feel like we want to be responsible in this situation and to still send a clear message that this pandemic is far from over and we need to keep taking responsibility.
I
Interviewer0:40
Are there ways that you've been able to still connect and still make progress, even without demonstrating in person?
G
Greta Thunberg0:50
Definitely. We have a very good international connection. We had that already before the corona pandemic because, I mean, we are a movement where basically no one flies. So we have to find ways to communicate without actually traveling to places all the time. So we have Zoom strikes. Sometimes we have tweet storms. Sometimes we have physical strikes with very few people and social distancing. So it varies.
I
Interviewer1:21
Coronavirus, obviously, means that global emissions fell during 2020 by six or seven percent. Do you think that drop in emissions can help put the world on a better path towards avoiding the worst impacts of global warming?
G
Greta Thunberg1:39
First of all, that emission reduction was erased by a weaker carbon landscape, so that's just another aspect that really puts the term 'net zero' in a whole new perspective. But of course, no, this is nothing positive. The corona pandemic brought nothing positive. The emissions reductions we could see were temporary and accidental and happened due to us focusing on another thing. We didn't do them; they didn't occur due to us actually trying to reduce emissions, but they were a byproduct of trying to hold the pandemic. So this has got nothing to do with climate action.
I
Interviewer2:23
And how would you compare the global response to the pandemic and the health crisis of coronavirus to the global response to the climate crisis?
G
Greta Thunberg2:33
I think that's quite clear for everyone to see for themselves, the sort of crisis response. But if there's one thing, as I said, the corona pandemic brought nothing positive. But if there's one thing we can actually see from it, it's that it proves that the climate crisis has never once been treated as a crisis. It just puts it in a different light.
I
Interviewer2:56
In the last 24 months, we've seen a lot of major economies adopt net zero targets, including the UK. I'm sitting here in London. Do you think that is enough?
G
Greta Thunberg3:08
If you take into account the overall science, then you can clearly see that it is not enough if we are to live up to the promises and pledges we have made in the Paris Agreement. But that has got nothing to do with me. It's not me saying that. But it's quite a shame that they can just put out a number like net zero 2050 that is based on incomplete carbon budgets and insufficient numbers and get away with it without being held accountable because the general lack of awareness is too big. People don't know what net zero emissions 2050 actually means. And when the UK says it's going to reduce its emissions by 60 or 80 percent by 2030, people don't know what that actually means. So they get away with it.
I
Interviewer4:01
You wrote in one of your letters from last summer that net zero emissions by 2050 for the EU, US, and other financially fortunate parts of the world equals surrender.
G
Greta Thunberg4:14
Well, first of all, when I say that it is surrender, it's because, as I said earlier, it's based on insufficient numbers and incomplete carbon budgets. And by adopting that as a target, they basically admit that they are giving up on the Paris Agreement because that is not in line with it. So that's why it's surrender, because it means they're giving up on those targets. And since we don't have all the technological solutions today at hand that alone can put our emissions to minus, that means we must forget about net zero. We need real zero. But that's where we are right now. And we must also remember that promises of future increases in innovation don't really mean anything if we aren't doing anything right now, because it is right now that the carbon budget is being used up. If we continue at the same rate we are right now, then the carbon budget, which gives us the best odds of staying below 1.5 degrees, will be gone long before we even have the chance to deliver on 2030 or 2050 targets.
I
Interviewer5:30
Do you think companies have made progress? Have you had any conversations with any CEOs that you think really get it or are getting it right?
G
Greta Thunberg5:41
Of course, there's so much goodwill, and there are so many people wanting to do the right thing. And let's be clear, this is not anyone's fault. This cannot be blamed on any specific individual or any CEO or head of state. This is a structural problem that allows this to continue. Because even if a company would want to act in line with what would be consistent with the Paris Agreements, that would basically not be possible because today it seems too unpopular, unprofitable, uncomfortable to do that, and then they are often stuck in already written contracts and deals. The United Nations Emissions Gap Report of 2019 shows that fossil fuel production by 2030 alone accounts for 120 percent more than what would be consistent with the Paris Agreements. So that shows that if we are to meet these targets, we are going to have to tear up valid contracts and deals, and that's still possible within today's system.
I
Interviewer6:51
So when you talk about how it's a structural problem and this type of change isn't possible within today's system, do you mean that the whole global economy is to blame, in a way? Is it the capitalist world that we live in that you see as the root of the problem?
G
Greta Thunberg7:12
No. When I say system, I don't mean capitalism. Like I explained earlier, it's not legally nor politically possible to do these changes, nor economically. And I'm not criticizing capitalism. I stay out of politics as much as possible. I speak to many politicians and CEOs, and they say that they cannot do these changes because they don't have the support from voters or they don't have the pressure from customers or whatever it may be. And the solution to that is to raise awareness, to create public opinion, to treat the crisis like a crisis. Because how can we expect to have people on board if the climate crisis basically doesn't exist in the public debate? Why would people want climate action then? If we can create awareness, that will make people push and demand these changes, and then it will be possible to do these things that today seem unthinkable.
I
Interviewer8:25
During the last two and a half years since you started striking, the movement has changed a lot. Your life has changed some, too. I'd like to ask what it's been like to have been and to be still this figurehead for a movement and to get so much fame and attention. How has that felt for you personally?
G
Greta Thunberg8:49
I don't know. I've not really grasped it yet, in a way, because you have to keep yourself distant from these kinds of things. You can't let this occupy your personal life. And if you actually understand everything that has happened and take in everything that I've experienced and so on, then you would develop a self image, and that will not be very healthy at such a young age. Because when all this disappears and when all this focus disappears, which it will very soon, I'm surprised that it has stayed so long, then that could be a hard thing to handle. So you can't really allow yourself to think of it in that way. You just have to distance yourself from it. But of course, it has been a very strange experience. But yeah, I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed talking to so many people. I've enjoyed traveling. I've been very privileged to be able to have experienced the things that I have and to visit places that I would never have done.
I
Interviewer10:10
Has it also been hard at times, being the subject of so much scrutiny?
G
Greta Thunberg10:16
In Sweden, no one comes up to you. If I go to another country, any other country, even if it's just Denmark or Norway, just passing that border, it's a completely different thing. Then I can't walk down a street without people stopping me. But here in Sweden, no one even looks at me. I see in their eyes that they know it's me and that they recognize me, but they don't stop me, which is quite nice, actually.
I
Interviewer10:44
And what do you think is next for you? I think you have a couple more years left of high school. Do you know what you'll study yet, or are you thinking about university?
G
Greta Thunberg10:56
I have no idea. After this year finishes, I have two more years of gymnasium, unless I decide to do something else. I don't know. I'm still very young, so I don't know what I want to do with my life. So I'm keeping things open, I guess.
I
Interviewer11:19
Do you think you'll continue to work in climate work?
G
Greta Thunberg11:23
Unfortunately, yes. The wish would be that everything would just be all right and that there would be no need for climate activists. But to be realistic, that's probably not going to be the case.
I
Interviewer11:39
I also want to talk a bit about what's happening to the planet. I was wondering if you could just sum up for me and for our readers what we've learned about global warming and what we've seen on the planet in the past year.
G
Greta Thunberg11:54
Well, of course, you can't connect any individual event as proof of the climate crisis and so on. But the picture is getting clearer and clearer. And we are seeing more and more of these kinds of events that can be linked to the climate crisis, that are being fueled by the climate and ecological crisis, and we are rapidly moving in the wrong direction. 2020 was the hottest year ever recorded, tied for first place, despite a cooling La Niña effect. And we've seen record levels of the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere. We've seen numerous extreme weather events that are signs of the same pattern, a very clear pattern, which shows that we are rapidly moving in the wrong direction.
I
Interviewer12:48
You've always said that it's not your place to talk about solutions or you don't have all the solutions, you don't have all the answers. But do you think that's changing now, or is it time to start working on the solutions?
G
Greta Thunberg13:04
That depends on what people define as a solution, whether you find a carbon tax a solution, whether you find electric cars a solution. We, of course, welcome all these things that do more good than harm. But if I were to start talking about taxes or things like that, then since I have such a big reach, that would send a signal that the climate crisis is an issue that can come down to party politics. And that really minimizes this crisis, and it sends a signal that this can be solved within today's society. Quoting the IPCC, they said that we need unprecedented changes in all aspects of society. And that just says itself that we don't know what that will look like because we don't have anything to compare it to. We haven't seen these kinds of changes before.
I
Interviewer14:07
One thing that you've written a lot about is the idea of carbon budgets, of having an annual carbon budget. I was wondering if you could just explain for the reader of the FT what that means and why it's so important.
G
Greta Thunberg14:25
A carbon budget is the idea of having a limited amount of carbon dioxide that we can still emit to have a reasonable chance of staying below a certain target, like two degrees or 1.5 degrees. And then all these different carbon budgets have different odds of us staying below these targets. The only morally right thing to do would be to base policies and everything in line with the carbon budget which gives us the best possible odds of staying below 1.5 degrees Celsius of global average temperature rise above pre-industrial levels. Because there are carbon dioxide budgets, like net zero 2050, that are based on a budget which gives us about a 50 percent chance of staying below these targets. And of course, since they exclude so many essential aspects, in reality that is much less than a 50 percent chance. The carbon dioxide budgets given by the IPCC that give us the highest odds is 66 percent, or two-thirds possibility, of staying below 1.5. But they also exclude many factors. So everything is very loose, and it's very complicated. So that's why we can't just take one number and base everything on that. We need to take into account the whole picture, the full picture. We need to include land use in our calculations. We need to include the aspect of equity and, of course, negative emissions technologies, but at a reasonable scale, and historic emissions, so many things that need to be taken into account.
I
Interviewer16:14
Will you be going to COP this year in Glasgow?
G
Greta Thunberg16:21
That depends. First of all, if it doesn't get cancelled again, and if I get invited, and if that's okay with school and so on, there are lots of obstacles there. But I think, if I were given the chance, then I would probably go.
I
Interviewer16:43
And what would you like to see at the COP? You've been to Madrid, you were in Katowice, you've seen quite a few of these conferences before. Do you hope this one can be different in some way?
G
Greta Thunberg17:00
I know it won't be different. Because as long as we don't treat the crisis like a crisis, no real change will be achieved. We can hold these conferences and meetings for eternity over and over again, as many as we want. That still won't lead to any change unless we actually, for real, realize where we are and actually start acknowledging this crisis and admit that we have failed thus far.
I
Interviewer17:36
Do you think that moment will come? What is missing right now from the discourse?
G
Greta Thunberg17:42
The sense of time. We are talking about things to do in 2050 or 2040, and there are always several decades missing. And so there's a gap that needs to be communicated, a gap between what needs to be done and where we are right now, what we are doing, and what we say we're going to do. And that gap is probably among the biggest failures in human history and the biggest news story ever. And that is something that is being completely ignored, and that just increases the importance of it.
I
Interviewer18:37
Where do you hope that the youth climate movement can go from here, and what's next for the group? I know it's not only you, of course. It's a whole grassroots of many people. But what do you think is coming on?
G
Greta Thunberg18:56
I have no idea. I guess the strength of the Fridays for Future movement is that it's so spontaneous. We are not an organization. We do everything based on what is best at the moment. We have learned during this last year that nothing can be taken for granted, that we can't plan things in advance because suddenly something comes along which just turns the world completely upside down. So I have no idea. But one thing is for sure, that we are still going to do everything that we can, based on the circumstances, and continue to communicate the science and to be a pain in the ass for people in power and just continue repeating the same message until the climate crisis gets treated as a crisis.