Europe’s youth must vote en masse next month, Greta Thunberg

April 17th, 2019

It’s vital that young adults vote in the upcoming European
elections and voice their concerns to politicians over climate change, Greta
Thunberg said at the European Parliament yesterday.

Speaking in front of the Parliament’s environment committee yesterday, Thunberg called on young people to vote in the next month’s election as “a good way for young people to influence law-making against global warming”.

Thunberg said that she accepted the Parliament’s invitation
to speak on behalf of the young people who share her concerns “about the
climate crisis and ecological breakdown”.

In August, Thunberg starting going on strike from school and
sitting outside the Swedish Parliament to demand greater action on tackling
climate change.

Her actions sparked a global movement, culminating in an
international School Strike for Climate Action last month. In Ireland, over 15,000
students from across the country took part to urge the Government to adopt
immediate and effective climate policy.

She said that young Europeans students “should be very proud
of themselves” for their role in the climate strikes that are taking place
every Friday across the continent. 

“We still have an open window that is not going to be open
for long in which we can act so we need to take that opportunity to do
something,” she added.

 “It’s especially
important for those who actually can vote to use that in order to speak on
behalf of people like me who are going to be affected very much by this crisis.

“You need to listen to us and vote for us. What we are doing now cannot be undone. Yet, some parties don’t even want me to talk here today because they do not want me to talk about the climate breakdown,” she said.

‘Speaking truth to
power’

Last month, three political groups invited Thunberg to address
the Parliament at its plenary session, but the invitation was vetoed by the ALDE
and EPP groupings of which Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are members respectively.

Sinn Féin MEP for Dublin Lynn Boylan said that she was
“delighted” that Thunberg was allowed to address MEPs yesterday. “I hope that
the politicians heed her message,” she said.

“I stood with the student climate strikers in Dublin and was
inspired by their passion but also by the level of awareness that the young
activists had,” Ms Boylan added.

“Greta Thunberg and the climate activists are speaking truth to power and that has the political establishment worried.”

Earlier this month, young citizens on the frontline of climate activism took centre stage at an event in the Parliament offices in Dublin to tell MEP candidates what needs to be done to tackle the crisis of their generation.

Ms Boylan, all three Green Party candidates, Alex White of Labour and other candidates were in the audience to hear from the likes of Beth Doherty from the School Strikes for Climate movement.

Conor O’Brien (l), Clodagh Daly (c) and Beth Doherty (r) Photo: Niall Sargent

The 15-year-old Ms Doherty said that she wanted to gauge if
candidates have plans to implement “radical climate action rather than just
empty promises” and improve Ireland’s record as one of Europe’s worst climate
performers.

“We’ve striked for our futures, for climate action, to be
listened to and we need the MEPs- candidates and elected- to listen to this.
They cannot go into this election ignoring climate change and putting forward
no climate policy,” she added.

The Environmental Pillar – a coalition of over 30 national
environmental NGOs – will host three climate hustings across the country over
the coming weeks for candidates to set out their commitments to potential
voters.

Pillar coordinator Michael Ewing said: “We need a
fundamental rethink of the kind of Europe we want to really bridge the gap
between the EU and what its citizens want in terms of environmental and
biodiversity protection.

“Citizens are crying out for a vision for the future of Europe that puts climate action, biodiversity protection and environmental justice at the core of the bloc’s policies.”.

About the Author

Niall Sargent

Niall is the Editor of The Green News. He is a multimedia journalist, with an MA in Investigative Journalism from City University, London

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