Greta Thunberg says UN's climate conference is a 'scam' and she won't be attending

Greta Thunberg has said she won't be attending this year's COP climate change conference and described the event as a 'scam'.

We're just days away from COP27, the annual climate conference, that will take place this year from 6-18 November in Egypt.

However, one prolific climate activist will noticeably not be in attendance,19-year-old Thunberg.

Michele D'Ottavio / Alamy Stock Photo

Thunberg has caught headlines from a young age after her school strike for climate change went viral.

She's since been seen as a figurehead for positive action amid the climate crisis, so it came as a shock that she wouldn't be attending COP27.

For those not familiar, the COP conferences are held every year and this year will see Egypt 'host more than 45,000 registered COP27 participants representing Parties, UN and regional organizations, businesses, the scientific community, indigenous and local communities, and civil society to jointly enhance and accelerate the implementation of climate action and follow up on our collective commitments and pledges,' as the conference's website explains.

While many used the COP conferences to track the world's progress toward tackling climate change, Thunberg had a different take.

As she said during her book launch at London’s Southbank Centre: "I’m not going to COP27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is extremely limited.

"The COPs are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing."

Greenwashing is the process of companies or countries exaggerating their commitment to tackling climate change.

Thunberg added that the point of the conference, as she sees it, they 'are not really meant to change the whole system' but rather trace gradual progress.

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Given the incredibly pressing nature of the climate crisis, Greta says: "As it is, the COPs are not really working, unless, of course, we use them as an opportunity to mobilise, which we must try to do, and make people realise what a colossal scam this is."

And honestly, we do kind of get what she's saying, because watching the world's superpowers fly to a conference to talk about climate change seems like the start of a Monty Python sketch.

And for anyone wondering whether Thunberg walks the walk, given that she won't be attending the conference, turns out her commitment to stopping climate change is present every day.

The teen explained to The Times: "I always walk. Maybe I should be more cautious... Probably I should be more careful. People tell me I should."

To be fair, we're pretty bad for calling an Uber for a five-minute trek, but at least we're not flying to a climate conference.