Greta Thunberg slams world leaders who want selfies to 'look good'

Greta Thunberg has blasted world leaders who only want selfies with her to 'look good' and alleged they have betrayed future generations on climate change.

The 17-year-old has claimed that Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, had queued up to have a 'selfie' with her at the UN climate change summit in September.

As part of a series she has made about her campaigning for Swedish radio, Thunberg criticised the behaviour of high-ranking figures at the New York summit.

'Presidents, prime ministers, kings and princesses came and wanted to talk to me,' she said. 'They saw me and suddenly saw the chance that they could take a photo with me for their Instagram account. Then the hashtag #savetheplanet.

'It seemed as if they had forgotten for a moment to be ashamed that their generation had let future generations down.'

In follow-up comments made to the BBC, Thunberg, who has more than four million Twitter followers, said she had a 'dislike' for politicians who wanted to capitalise on her fame by being photographed alongside her.

'To be fair, it was not only (Merkel), it was many,' she said.

'And those kinds of things happen all the time. People just want to stand next to me and other climate activists. They can post it on social media and it makes them look good, it makes them seem like they care.'

In January, activist Thunberg was pictured with Prince Charles after he gave a speech at the World Economic F... (Read more)

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