MADRID: Climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in Madrid on Friday to join thousands of other young people in a march to demand world leaders take real action against climate change.

After making it through a swarm of media cameras and microphones at the Spanish capital’s northern train station, the Swedish teen posted an ironic tweet saying that she had successfully managed to sneak into Madrid.

“I don’t think anyone saw me...,” she added. Anyway its great to be in Spain!” Madrid is hosting two-week, United Nations-sponsored talks aimed at streamlining the rules on global carbon markets and agreeing on how poor countries should be compensated for destruction largely caused by emissions from rich nations.

An official directly involved in the negotiations said that despite a few setbacks, the technical negotiations were progressing, although many issues were being left for ministerial-level meetings in the summit’s second and final week.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous given the sensitivity of the discussions, added that a political declaration on greater ambition” a buzzword at the summit was shaping to be difficult to achieve.

A summit that doesn’t end with enhanced ambition would be something that nobody would understand if we take into account what the streets and science are telling us, the official said.

The talks came as evidence mounts about disasters that could ensue from further global warming, including a study commissioned by 14 seafaring nations and published on Friday predicting that unchecked climate change could devastate fishery industries and coral reef tourism.

Thunberg paid a surprise visit to the venue of the talks and joined a group of some 40 teens staging a sit-in there to demand real action against climate change.

Holding hands, the teens sang a version of John Lennon’s Power To the People and displayed banners with the logo of Fridays for Future, the global climate movement inspired by Thunberg.

In the presence of dozens of media cameras and curious summit participants, the protesters exchanged chants: What do you want? Climate Justice When do you want it?” Now! Thunberg did not appear unsettled by the commotion surrounding her presence.

“It’s absurd. I laugh at it. I do not understand why it has become like this,” the 16-year-old was quoted as saying by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, whose reporter rode with them in an electric car in Madrid.

I don’t like being at the center of the focus all the time, but this is a good thing, she told Aftonbladet. “As soon as the media writes about me, they also have to write about the climate crisis. If this is a way to write about the climate crisis, then I guess it is good.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2019