US climate activist Al Gore on Wednesday backed fellow campaigner Greta Thunberg‘s fight against a German coal mine in a fiery speech that also took aim at the World Bank and Abu Dhabi.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Gore bluntly told delegates “we are not winning” the fight against climate change and emissions are still going up despite “all these promises of these last few years to cut emissions”.
He praised Thunberg who was briefly detained by police on Tuesday near the German village of Luetzerath which is being razed to make way for an expanded coal mine.
“I agree with her efforts to stop that coal mine,” Gore said, adding that young people around the world despaired of efforts by leaders to tackle the climate crisis.
“They look at the World Bank and say ‘you’ve got a climate denier in charge of the World Bank, so why are you surprised that the World Bank is completely failing to do its job,” he said.
“Everybody knows the World Bank is failing badly.”
World Bank chief David Malpass, who was appointed by former US president Donald Trump, has faced repeated criticism from people who question his commitment to climate action as well as the bank’s track record.
Gore also underlined the difficulties activists have in understanding why the head of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company has been named as president of this year’s COP28 climate talks in the Gulf state.
“It’s not whether he’s a nice guy or not or whether he’s intelligent,” the former Democrat presidential candidate said.
“The appearance of a conflict of interest undermines confidence at a time when climate activists around the world … have come to the conclusion that the people in authority are not doing their job.
