Originally published 2021-10-26.
A few days before the COP26 climate summit opened in Glasgow in late October 2021, Greta Thunberg told the BBC that real progress on climate change would not come from the conference itself but from ordinary people demanding it. "The change is going to come when people are demanding change," she said, warning that no one should expect summits alone to fix the problem. She urged leaders to be honest about how far they were falling short, and said that in her view there were no true climate leaders in the wealthy countries of the global north.
Her comments set the tone for how many activists approached Glasgow: hopeful that the meeting could matter, but convinced that only sustained public pressure would turn promises into action. Here is what she said, why COP26 was such a big moment, and what the summit eventually delivered.
What Thunberg told the BBC
Thunberg, who was 18 at the time, argued that success at Glasgow should not be measured only by the text world leaders signed. What she wanted most was for people to grasp how urgent the situation was and to see the climate crisis as an existential threat that would require deep changes to the way economies work, not small adjustments.
She asked politicians to stop presenting partial measures as solutions and instead admit where they had failed. At the same time, she left room for a change of course, saying that leaders could still decide to take the process seriously.
She also pushed back on her own fame. "I don't see myself as a climate celebrity, I see myself as a climate activist," she said, adding that she was fortunate to have a platform when so many people affected by climate change are ignored. She described herself as much less serious and more playful in private than the stern figure people see in the media.
How a school strike became a global movement
Thunberg was born in Stockholm on 3 January 2003. On 20 August 2018, aged 15, she began skipping school to sit alone outside the Swedish parliament with a sign calling for stronger climate action. She later moved her strike to Fridays, and the idea spread rapidly. Within months, students in many countries were holding their own Fridays for Future strikes.
By September 2019 she was addressing the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, where an emotional speech accused world leaders of failing young people with empty words. In September 2021, at a youth climate event in Milan, she criticised leaders including Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and Narendra Modi for promises that, in her view, never turned into real cuts in emissions.
Her message before Glasgow followed the same line: summits and pledges matter less than whether emissions actually fall, and governments move fastest when voters and citizens refuse to let the issue drop.
Other voices: the call for an inclusive summit
Thunberg was not the only campaigner the BBC spoke to. Kevin Mtai, a climate justice activist from Kenya, said he hoped COP26 would make room for indigenous peoples, marginalised communities and people from the countries hit hardest by climate change. He stressed that people from the global south should be able to speak for themselves rather than have others speak for them, "because we are the ones who have been affected by climate change."
That concern was widely shared. Many activists and delegates from poorer countries worried that travel costs, visa problems and pandemic restrictions would keep them away from Glasgow, while large delegations from wealthy nations and industry would be there in force. Analysts later counted more than 500 people accredited with links to the fossil fuel industry, more than any single national delegation.
Why COP26 was such a big moment
COP stands for Conference of the Parties, the annual meeting of countries that signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP26 was held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow from 31 October to 13 November 2021, hosted by the UK in partnership with Italy and chaired by British minister Alok Sharma. It had been delayed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was the most important climate meeting since Paris in 2015, where countries agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5°C. Under the Paris rules, countries were expected to return with stronger national plans every five years, and Glasgow was the first big test of that system. Around 120 heads of state and government attended, including US President Joe Biden.
What Glasgow delivered, and what it did not
The summit ended on 13 November with the Glasgow Climate Pact, agreed by nearly 200 countries. Its main results were:
- A 1.5°C focus: countries agreed to keep the 1.5°C goal alive and to revisit their 2030 targets sooner than planned.
- Coal named for the first time: it was the first UN climate deal to mention coal directly. A last-minute intervention led by India, backed by China, changed the wording from "phase out" to "phase down" of unabated coal power, which left many smaller and more vulnerable nations deeply disappointed.
- Side pledges: more than 100 countries pledged to end deforestation by 2030, and more than 80 signed up to cut methane emissions by 30 percent by the end of the decade. India announced a net-zero target for 2070.
Independent analysts were cautious. Climate Action Tracker estimated that the world was still heading for about 2.7°C of warming under policies in place at the time, and about 1.8°C only if every announced target was fully met.
Was she right about public pressure?
Thunberg's own verdict on Glasgow was harsh. Speaking to young protesters in the city during the summit, she called it a failure and dismissed much of the talk as empty words and greenwashing. The streets told their own story: a Fridays for Future march on 5 November drew thousands of schoolchildren, and on 6 November around 100,000 people marched through Glasgow, the largest protest the city had seen since the demonstrations against the Iraq War in 2003.
Whether public pressure changes climate policy is debated, but the pattern since 2018 suggests it shapes what leaders feel able to promise. The practical lesson she offered is simple. Following the negotiations is not enough; votes, consumer choices, local campaigns and steady attention between summits are what keep governments accountable for the pledges they make.
Sources: BBC News interview with Greta Thunberg; Wikipedia: 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference; Wikipedia: Greta Thunberg; AP via GPB, 13 November 2021.
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