2023 Davos meeting ends amid climate protests

DAVOS, Switzerland 

On the last day of annual gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF), climate activists once again took the stage in Swiss ski resort Davos, putting pressure on global firms for exacerbating human-made damage to the environment.

Maja Redies, one of the climate activists who participated in the protest, told Anadolu that the richest and most powerful people in the world have joined the WEF, adding the activists will not remain silent until governments take action on climate crisis.

Redies said it was a "disappointment" that world leaders did not take concrete steps in the face of urgent ecological crisis.

Nothing has changed in the summits so far, said another protestor, Selina. "I am from Davos and I grow up living with the WEF meetings, then I saw people talking about important things and talking about changing things but nothing happened," she added.

"Since I am interested in politics, I try to speak up and take an action and fight for climate justice. Important figures come to Davos but they just talk without actions. This is also very frustrating, but it also motivates me to do something.

"It is important that the WEF and leaders see that there is a voice against them here. We really need to be a global movement. There can't be only a small group of people worrying about climate change. We must act together on this," she concluded.

Meanwhile, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was among the protesters that staged climate and anti-Davos demonstrations.

Thunberg on Thursday put the blame on the global elite for chasing short-term profits, saying it was "absurd" that the world deem to be listening to Davos delegates rather than those on fighting against climate crisis.

"We are right now in Davos where basically the people who are mostly fueling the destruction of the planet, the people who are at the very core of the climate crisis, the people who are investing in fossil fuels etcetera, etcetera and yet somehow these are the people that we seem to rely on solving our problems," Thunberg told a panel at the WEF.