Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg gave an impassioned speech at the United Nations on Monday, calling on world leaders to take immediate action on climate change, according to NPR.
“This is all wrong,” Thunberg said in her message at the Climate Action Summit in New York. “I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school, on the other side of the ocean.”
Thunberg, a 16-year-old native of Sweden, has been in the United States for nearly a month, in which time she has testified in front of Congress, The New York Times reported. She also organized and participated in the Global Climate Strike on Friday.
In her speech at the U.N., Thunberg reminded world leaders that their inaction on climate change would affect herself and the children of the world far more than it would affect those currently in power, according to NPR.
“You all come to us young people for hope,” Thunberg said. “How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, and yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing.”
“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction,” Thunberg said later, according to a report from Vox. “And all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
Around 60 world leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern were in attendance at the event, according to BBC News.
President Donald Trump, who has rolled back various environmental protections, was not expected to attend the summit, but made an appearance for 14 minutes before leaving to attend an event about religious freedom, Politico reported.