Tag Archives: Thunberg

Greta Thunberg to lead climate march on last day of talks at Davos

Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunbergand other prominent climate activists including Vanessa Nakate and Helena Neubauer are holding a climate march on the final day of panels at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Thunberg met with the chief of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, on the sidelines of the convention on Thursday and slammed corporate elites for their inaction.

Leaders at Davos are “fuelling the destruction of the planet” by investing in fossil fuels and prioritising short-term profits over people affected by the climate crisis, she said.

The activists brought a ‘cease and desist’ letter calling on the heads of fossil fuel companies to stop all new oil and natural gas projects, it was signed by nearly 900,000 people.

Today’s proceeding will be the last of this year’s talks at the World Economic Forum, under the theme ‘Cooperation in a Fragmented World’.

The convention has brought together hundreds of world leaders and industry experts for special addresses, panel discussions and separate meetings.

Click on the image above to watch the march live.

What were the highlights of Thursday’s sessions?

  • FBI Director Christopher Wray said he’s “deeply concerned” about China’s artificial intelligence programme, and said the country’s AI initiatives “are not constrained by the rule of law” and are “built on top of massive troves of intellectual property and sensitive data that they’ve stolen over the years.”

  • Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said he still believes it’s possible to resolve his country’s differences with Turkey by speaking with Turkey’s president, stressing the neighbours will not go to war.

  • Keir Starmer, the UK opposition leader said the UK needs a strategy for renewables. Starmer said new investment in the oil and gas industry is not the answer as the UK must move towards the goal of net zero emissions and reduce dependency on oil and gas.

  • Grant Shapps, the UK Business Minister, discussed how governments and companies can work together to shape the next generation of industrial strategies and warned that US President Joe Biden’s green subsidy programme is “dangerous”.

  • Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelesnkyy attended a breakfast briefing on the sidelines of the gathering in which he bemoaned a “lack of specific weaponry” and said that to win the war, “we cannot just do it with motivation and morale.”

Who can viewers expect to see on the final day of meetings in Davos on Friday?

  • Maria Leptin, the President of the European Research Council; Mikuláš Bek, the Czech Minister for European Affairs; Tanja Fajon, the Deputy Prime Minister of Slovenia; Christine Lagarde, the President, of the European Central Bank; Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; author, Christoph Keller; Fawn Sharp, President of the National Congress of American Indians and Børge Brende, the President of the World Economic Forum in Geneva.
  • Euronews’ Sasha Vakulina, Meabh McMahon, Fay Doulgkeri and David Walsh have been on the ground in Davos and are covering all the latest developments.



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Davos 2023: Greta Thunberg accuses energy firms of throwing people ‘under the bus’

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Greta Thunberg called on the global energy industry and its financiers to end all fossil fuel investments on Thursday at a high-profile meeting in Davos with the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

During a round-table discussion with Fatih Birol on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting, activists said they had presented a “cease and desist” letter to CEOs calling for a stop to new oil, gas and coal extraction.

“As long as they can get away with it they will continue to invest in fossil fuels, they will continue to throw people under the bus,” Thunberg warned.

The oil and gas industry, which has been accused by activists of hijacking the climate change debate in the Swiss ski resort, has said that it needs to be part of the energy transition as fossil fuels will continue to play a major role in the energy mix as the world shift to a low-carbon economy.

Thunberg, who was detained by police in Germany earlier this week during a demonstration at a coal mine, joined with fellow activists Helena Gualinga from Ecuador, Vanessa Nakate from Uganda and Luisa Neubauer from Germany to discuss the tackle the big issues with Birol.

Birol, whose agency makes policy recommendations on energy, thanked the activists for meeting him, but insisted that the transition had to include a mix of stakeholders, especially in the face of the global energy security crisis.

The IEA chief, who earlier on Thursday met with some of the biggest names in the oil and gas industry in Davos, said there was no reason to justify investments in new oil fields because of the energy crunch, saying by the time these became operational the climate crisis would be worse.

He also said he was less pessimistic than the climate activists about the shift to clean energy.

“We can have slight legitimate optimism,” he said, adding: “Last year the amount of renewables coming to the market was record high.”

But he admitted that the transition was not happening fast enough and warned that emerging and developing countries risked being left behind if advanced economies did not support the transition.

Youth climate activist Greta Thunberg takes part in a discussion on “Treating the climate crisis like a crisis” with International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol (not pictured) on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 19, 2023. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

‘REAL MONEY’

The United Nation’s climate conference, held in Egypt last year, established a loss and damage fund to compensate countries most impacted by climate change events.

Nakate, who held a solitary protest outside the Ugandan parliament for several months in 2019, said the fund “is still an empty bucket with no money at all.”

“There is a need for real money for loss and damage”.

In 2019, the then 16-year-old Thunberg took part in the main WEF meeting, famously telling leaders that “our house is on fire”. She returned to Davos the following year.

But she refused to participate as an official delegate this year as the event returned to its usual January slot.

Asked why she did not want to advocate for change from the inside, Thunberg said there were already activists doing that.

“I think it should be people on the frontlines and not privileged people like me,” she said. “I don’t think the changes we need are very likely to come from the inside. They are more likely to come from the bottom up.”

The activists later walked together through the snowy streets of Davos, where many of the shops have temporarily been turned into “pavilions” sponsored by companies or countries.

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Writing by Leela de Kretser; Editing by Alexander Smith

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Did the Romanian pizza box in response video to Greta Thunberg give away Andrew Tate’s location?

Just hours after Andrew Tate’s humiliating Twitter spat with climate activist Greta Thunberg, the controversial influencer was arrested by Romanian authorities for human trafficking and rape investigation.

The 36-year-old former kickboxer, who gained infamy for his misogynist views, was apprehended by Romanian police after they descended on a villa where he was staying with his brother on Thursday.

It has been widely speculated on social media that the arrest may have never happened if he had not posted a clapback video to mock Ms Thunberg on Twitter.

Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism, that had been waiting for nine months for the Tate brothers to return to Romania, mobilised forces and descended upon their villa after learning they were in the country through their social media posts, sources close to the investigation told Romanian outlet Gandul.

“Romanian authorities needed proof that Andrew Tate was in the country so they reportedly used his social media posts,” tweeted civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo, sharing a screenshot of Mr Tate’s video from the day before.

“His ridiculous video yesterday featured a pizza from a Romanian pizza chain, Jerry’s Pizza, confirming he was in the country.”

However, in an interview with the Washington Post, Ramona Bolla, a spokeswoman for the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism, denied that the pizza boxes in the Twitter video played a part in Mr Tate’s arrest, saying, “it was a hard job gathering all the evidence”.

It began after Mr Tate attempted to mock Ms Thunberg and tagged the climate activist in a Twitter post, asking for her email address so he could “send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions”.

The following day, the climate activist responded with a tweet of her own, replying, “Yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldi***energy@getalife.com.”

The exchange quickly went viral, with Ms Thunberg’s post garnering millions of likes, and inspired a number of trending topics.

Mr Tate hit back by sharing a response video, telling Ms Thunberg, a Nobel Prize nominee and Time person of the year, to “get a life”.

In the video, Mr Tate smoked a cigar in a robe and a person off-camera gave him a stack of pizza boxes from the Romanian pizza chain, Jerry’s Pizza. He tried to joke about refusing to recycle the boxes to taunt Ms Thunberg.

But Ms Thunberg had the last laugh, posting a tweet following Mr Tate’s arrest saying: “this is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.”

The Tate brothers have been under criminal investigation since April. They were detained alongside two Romanian suspects.

“The four suspects … appear to have created an organised crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialised websites for a cost,” prosecutors said.

The former kickboxer gained a large following of men online, and has been banned from various social media sites, for his aggressive and oftentimes misogynistic views, including that women should “shut the f**k up, have kids, sit at home, be quiet and make coffee”.

His account on Twitter was reinstated alongside Donald Trump and Kanye West following Elon Musk’s takeover.

In 2016, he was booted out from the reality TV show Big Brother, after a video emerged of him hitting a woman with a belt, and a second clip showed him telling the woman to count the bruises he had left on her body.



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Greta Thunberg takes another swipe at Andrew Tate over pizza boxes after his arrest in Romania | World News

Greta Thunberg has dealt Andrew Tate another blow in the Twitter spat that has exploded this week, taunting him following his arrest in Romania.

Following news the controversial influencer had been detained on Thursday, the climate activist said in a post: “This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.”

Ms Thunberg was referring to the video Tate posted of him sitting at a desk wearing a robe and smoking a cigar, in which he told her to “get a life”.

In the footage, Tate tells a person off-camera: “Please bring me pizza and make sure that these boxes are not recycled.”

He was then handed a stack of boxes that appear to bear the branding of Romanian chain Jerry’s Pizza.

With Tate’s arrest coming quickly after the video, social media has been buzzing with the theory that the pizza boxes revealed his location to police.

The theory has spawned the trending hashtag #PizzaTate, although others pointed out that Tate had been posting about his location in Romania before the row.

The Romanian authorities have not made any comment on the video or whether the pizza boxes played a part in their investigation.

Tate and his brother Tristan have been under investigation since April alongside two Romanian nationals.

His home in the capital, Bucharest, has now reportedly been raided, with a lawyer for the brothers confirming their detention.

“The four suspects… appear to have created an organised crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialised websites for a cost,” Romanian prosecutors said.

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0:24

Tate cites the Matrix during arrest

Read more: Why Andrew Tate is so controversial

The row between Tate and Ms Thunberg started when he shared a picture on Twitter of himself standing next to a Bugatti and saying he owned 33 cars.

“Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions,” he tweeted, tagging Ms Thunberg.

The Swedish campaigner responded by saying: “Yes, please do enlighten me”, adding a fake email address mocking him and ending with the words “getalife.com”.

The tweet quickly amassed more than 3.5 million likes, catapulting it into the top 10 most-liked tweets in history.

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Greta Thunberg says COP26 climate summit is a failure and a PR event

Climate activist Greta Thunberg speaking on the main stage in George Square as part of the Fridays for Future Scotland march during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow. Picture date: Friday November 5, 2021.

Jane Barlow | PA Images | Getty Images

GLASGOW, Scotland — Climate activist Greta Thunberg said Friday that the COP26 climate summit is a failure, lambasting the U.N.-brokered talks for turning into a public relations exercise.

“It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure. It should be obvious that we cannot solve the crisis with the same methods that got us into it in the first place,” Thunberg said.

“The COP has turned into a PR event, where leaders are giving beautiful speeches and announcing fancy commitments and targets, while behind the curtains governments of the Global North countries are still refusing to take any drastic climate action.”

She was speaking on stage shortly after a strike organized by “Fridays For Future” saw thousands march 1.6 miles from Kelvingrove Park to George Park in Glasgow’s city center — less than 2 miles from where the COP26 event is being held.

The U.K. is presiding over COP26 through to Nov. 12, a major climate event regarded as one of the most important diplomatic meetings in history.

It has yielded some positive developments, including pledges to end and reverse deforestation, a deal to cut methane emission levels by 30% by 2030 and new commitments to phase out coal power.

However, experts harbor deep concerns about whether countries and companies can keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal alive. This critically important temperature threshold refers to the aspirational target of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.

Thunberg said COP26 had been described as “the most exclusionary COP ever,” saying those at the sharp end of the climate crisis remain unheard. She added that the event could be considered a “two-week-long celebration of business as usual and blah, blah, blah.”

A COP26 spokesperson said in a statement given to CNBC: “The UK is committed to hosting an inclusive COP.”

“Ensuring that the voices of those most affected by climate change are heard is a priority for the COP26 Presidency, and if we are to deliver for our planet, we need all countries and civil society to bring their ideas and ambition to Glasgow,” they added.

Policymakers and business leaders are under immense pressure to meet the demands of the climate emergency at COP26. Yet, even as many publicly acknowledge the necessity of transitioning to a low-carbon society, hopes of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius are quickly deteriorating.

Climate scientists have repeatedly stressed that the best weapon to tackle rising global temperatures is to cut greenhouse gas emissions — fast.

Thunberg was catapulted to fame for skipping school every Friday to hold a weekly vigil outside the Swedish Parliament in 2018. It sparked an international wave of school strikes, with millions of children taking part in rallies around the world.

“Once again we are faced with another COP event. How many more of these should they hold until they realize that their inactions are destroying the planet?” Vanessa Nakate, a climate activist from Uganda, said at the same event on Friday.

“Today we shall continue to fight on, everywhere we can. We cannot give up now. We need to continue holding leaders accountable for their actions. We cannot keep quiet about climate injustice,” she added.

‘Change is not going to come from inside there’

Speaking at a protest outside of the COP26 complex earlier this week, Thunberg once again slammed world leaders for not doing enough to meet the demands of the climate emergency.

“This COP26 is so far just like the previous COPs — and that has led us nowhere,” Thunberg said on Monday as she addressed climate activists.

“Inside COP, there are just politicians and people in power pretending to take our future seriously,” she said. “Change is not going to come from inside there, that is not leadership. This is leadership, this is what leadership looks like.”

She had previously voiced her frustration over climate inaction at the Youth4Climate summit in Milan, Italy in late September.

“Net zero by 2050. Blah, blah, blah. Net zero. Blah, blah, blah. Climate neutral. Blah, blah, blah. This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words that sound great but so far have led to no action. Our hopes and dreams drown in their empty words and promises,” Thunberg said at the time.

Read more about clean energy from CNBC Pro

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Greta Thunberg says she’s going ‘net-zero’ on cussing after COP26 sing-along

The 18-year-old Swede was filmed singing “You can shove your climate crisis up your a**e” to the tune of well-known children’s song “She’ll be coming ’round the mountain,” alongside fellow climate campaigners on the first day of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

Following a backlash by some over her choice in words, Thunberg posted a tongue-in-cheek response to her five million Twitter followers on Wednesday morning.

“I am pleased to announce that I’ve decided to go net-zero on swear words and bad language. In the event that I should say something inappropriate I pledge to compensate that by saying something nice. #COP26,” she wrote.

Thunberg made a speech at the recent Youth for Climate conference in which she roasted leaders, suggesting their climate talk amounted to “blah, blah, blah.”

On Monday, Thunberg joined other “Fridays for Future” activists at a demonstration at Festival Park in Glasgow, near the UN climate summit, where she once again mocked politicians for their inaction on climate.

She said the politicians and delegates gathered at the COP talks were “pretending to take our future seriously.”

“Change is not going to come from inside there. That is not leadership, this is leadership,” Thunberg added, referring to the group of protesters assembled outside.

“This is what leadership looks like. We say no more blah blah blah, no more exploitation of people and nature and the planet… No more whatever the f**k they’re doing inside there,” she continued.

Over the weekend, the environmental campaigner received a rock star welcome when she was mobbed by supporters at Glasgow’s Central Station.

After traveling north from London by train, Thunberg appeared to be in good spirits, giving photographers a thumbs-up as she made her way through the station upon arrival, surrounded by police and fellow climate activists.

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Greta Thunberg dances, sings ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ during climate event

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish high school student seen by many as a leading ambassador in the fight against climate change, rocked out on stage to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” during a Climate Live concert in Stockholm.

Thunberg “Rickrolled” the young audience.

The Washington Post identified the art of “Rickrolling” as “one of the Internet’s most enduring pranks,” which involves sending link disguised as something else, but once clicked, the recipient is treated to Rick Astley’s 1987 hit.

A TikTok video from the event shows Thunberg telling the audience, “We are no strangers to love.” She was joined on stage by another performer and they both began to dance, much to the delight of the audience.

Thunberg chastized global leaders last month for failing to meet funding pledges to help poor nations adapt to a warming Earth and for delivering too much “blah blah blah” as climate change wreaks havoc around the world.

“They invite cherry-picked young people to pretend they are listening to us,″ Thunberg said. “But they are not. They are clearly not listening to us. Just look at the numbers. Emissions are still rising. The science doesn’t lie.”

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Astley seemed pleased with Thunberg’s performance. He tweeted, “Fantastic.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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Greta Thunberg ‘Rickrolls’ climate concert with crazy dance moves

Thunberg danced to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” on Saturday, in front of a crowd at Climate Live, a youth-led concert for climate action.

“Rickrolling” is an internet phenomenon that involves getting someone to unwittingly open the video of Astley’s hit 80s song by using disguised hyperlinks.

Thunberg showed her moves off to an enamored audience as she danced and sang to the song atop a stage in Stockholm in a video posted to Climate Live’s TikTok. Astley himself shared footage of the dance, calling it “fantastic.”
The concert was staged ahead of COP26, the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change, which will take place this November.

The international climate talks in Glasgow couldn’t come at a more crucial time.

A state-of-the-science report published by the UN in August showed that the world is warming faster than scientists previously thought, and that slashing greenhouse gas emissions by at least half this decade is crucial to staving off the more catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis.

More than 190 countries signed up to the Paris Agreement after the COP21 meeting in 2015, to limit the increase in global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but preferably to 1.5 degrees.

Although the Paris Agreement was a landmark moment in the quest to address the climate crisis, it didn’t include details on how the world would achieve its goal. The subsequent COPs have sought to make the plans attached to it more ambitious and to detail courses of action.

But 18-year-old Thunberg took aim at world leaders — including US President Joe Biden and the UK’s Boris Johnson — at a youth climate summit in Milan last month, saying the past 30 years of climate action had amounted to “blah, blah, blah.”

“This is not about some expensive, politically correct dream at the bunny hugging or blah, blah, blah. Build back better, blah, blah, blah. Green economy, blah, blah, blah,” she said.

“Net zero, blah, blah, blah. Climate neutral, blah, blah, blah. This is all we hear from our so-called leaders — words, words that sound great but so far, has led to no action or hopes and dreams. Empty words and promises,” she added.

CNN’s Ivana Kottasová contributed reporting.



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UN can’t rule on a on climate case brought by Greta Thunberg and youth activists

A UN panel announced Monday that it cannot rule on a complaint by Greta Thunberg and other youth climate activists stating that inaction on climate change violates children’s rights, the UN Human Rights Office said in a press release.

Why it matters: The complaint is part of a trend of legal suits invoking climate inaction as a human rights issue.

  • The UN Child Rights Committee did rule that countries bear responsibility for the impact of climate change, even to petitioners beyond their borders.
  • However, the panel said it couldn’t rule in the case because the petitions should have been taken first to national courts.

Details: The complaint, filed in 2019 with the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, says that five countries — France, Turkey, Brazil, Germany and Argentina — had failed to curb carbon emissions despite known risks.

  • The petitioners, 16 youth climate activists hailing from 12 countries, argued that the named countries “failed to take necessary preventive measures to protect and [fulfill] children’s rights to life, health, and culture,” according to the UN press release.

What they’re saying: “Emitting States are responsible for the negative impact of the emissions originating in their territory on the rights of children — even those children who may be located abroad. The collective nature of the causes of climate change must not absolve a State from its individual responsibility,” said UN Child Rights Committee member Ann Skelton.

  • “When the climate disasters are even more severe than they are now, the Committee will severely regret not doing the right thing when they had the chance,” American petitioner Alexandria Villasenor said in a statement Monday.
  • “The Committee acknowledged that states are legally obligated to act, that our clients’ lives are at risk, and that time is running out. But they still closed the UN’s doors. So be it. The legal battle for the climate now returns to national courts,” said Scott Gilmore, the lead attorney for the petitioners.

Go deeper: In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court set a precedent by ordering the country to drastically cut emissions.

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New Zealand pizza chain tells Greta Thunberg to ‘go to hell’ after she slammed Jacinda Ardern

Popular pizza chain takes aim at eco-warrior Greta Thunberg after the teenager slammed Jacinda Ardern for ‘not doing anything’ about global warming

  • New Zealand company Hell Pizza told eco-warrior Greta Thunberg to ‘go to hell’
  • The company placed billboards in Thunberg’s hometown of Stockholm, Sweden
  • Created to show company’s offer of 100 per cent carbon neutral pizza deliveries
  • They wanted to prove companies were taking the crisis seriously in New Zealand










A popular pizza chain has taken aim at eco-warrior Greta Thunberg after the teenager slammed Jacinda Ardern for ‘not doing anything’ about global warming.

New Zealand company Hell Pizza placed posters in Thunberg’s hometown of Stockholm in Sweden, that read: ‘Greta can go to Hell’.

However, the company’s cheeky message was created as an invitation, rather than an insult. 

Hell Pizza wanted to display its commitment to 100 per cent carbon neutral pizza deliveries in New Zealand.

New Zealand company Hell Pizza revealed on Tuesday that they had placed advertisements in Thunberg’s hometown of Stockholm in Sweden, inviting her to ‘Go to Hell’

‘We agree that there’s been a lot of blah, blah, blah lately about tackling global warming,’ Hell Pizza wrote.

‘That’s why the team at Hell Pizza here in New Zealand have been putting more effort into taking action, rather than adding to the global inferno of empty promises.’

The company added: ‘While we’re not suggesting we’re climate leaders, we hope that this may encourage other businesses to begin their sustainable journey right now, not in the year 20 whatever.’

This comes after Greta Thunberg criticised New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last month for her lacklustre performance in managing climate change

In a letter to the vocal environmentalist, the New Zealand pizza company wanted to prove that companies in the country were tackling the climate crisis.

‘So if you’re ever down here in the underbelly of the world and partial to a delicious slice of pizza (we highly recommend our Vegan Mischief ), then we hope you’ll be happy knowing you can go to Hell,’ they concluded.

Hell Pizza chief executive Ben Cumming, said in a statement to the NZ Herald: ‘Looking to the future, we want our 75 stores to be even more clean and green. This includes a national electric fleet of delivery vehicles, renewable energy within stores, and sourcing more than 95 per cent of food and materials within Aotearoa.’

Hell Pizza offers 100% carbon neutral deliveries by offsetting over 1 million deliveries every year through ‘carbon credits used for the regeneration and conservation of native forests’.

‘We hope our story might inspire other businesses to think about their impact on the planet, and we’d love to show Greta what Kiwi businesses are already doing to make the world a better place.’

This comes after Greta Thunberg criticised New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last month for her lacklustre performance in managing climate change and claimed no leaders had done anything captivating to combat the crisis.

Thunberg told The Guardian in an interview: ‘It’s funny that people believe Jacinda Ardern and people like that are climate leaders. That just tells you how little people know about the climate crisis.’

In a letter to the vocal environmentalist, the New Zealand pizza company wanted to prove that companies in the country were tackling the climate crisis.

Hell Pizza ceo Ben Cumming said there are plans to introduce electric vehicles for deliveries soon and hopes the company’s story inspires other businesses to act on the climate crisis

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