COP28 'stab-on-the-back' on affected nations: Greta Thunberg

Stockholm: Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg slammed the COP28 climate deal as a stab in the back of nations that are taking the brunt of global warming. She said on Friday that the summit's deal, presided over by UAE this time, is not going to stop rising temperatures from bypassing critical levels, Reuters reported.

In Dubai, around 200 nations have agreed to start reducing the consumption of fossil fuels and adopt alternate measures. They also agreed to resort to more clean energy in an effort to avert the worst effects of climate change.

However, the deal is not going to stop global temperatures 1.5 degrees Celcius above preindustrial levels, experts say. They are concerned that the effects of rising temperatures will end up in the melting of polar ice sheets and the collapse of ocean currents.

Thunberg told Reuters that the climate deal text appears to be toothless and nowhere near the efforts to keep the temperatures below 1.5 C. She was outside Sweden's parliament, holding a protest with others for climate justice.

Thunberg said that the COP28 deal is a "stab in the back for the most vulnerable."

Meanwhile, the group of countries that are affected, called the Alliance of Small Island States, suggested that the agreement is full of loopholes for the petroleum producing territories. The group, which includes nations like Fiji, Tuvalu and Kiribati, said that the agreement is "incremental and not transformational", Reuters reported.

She said that as long as the world does not treat the climate crisis as a crisis, as long as it keeps lobby interests influencing climate deal texts as well as related processes, "we are not going to get anywhere", Reuters quoted her.