Climate change activist Greta Thunberg continued her sharp criticism of world leaders over global warming and called the COP26 a “failure” on Friday, as she led a massive protest outside the venue of the climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. The 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has seen around 120 world leaders and thousands of delegates discuss ways to curb global warming. More than 80 countries have pledged to cut methane emissions by 30% by the end of 2030, while more than 100 world leaders have pledged to halt and reverse deforestation by the end of next decade.

COP26: What to expect from the climate summit

US President Joe Biden, who termed the methane emission cut pledge as a “game-changing commitment”, said the summit would have “a profound impact on how the rest of the world is looking at the United States and its leadership role.”

However, climate activists including Thundberg have accused the world leaders of using the summit to divert attention from their alleged lack of action towards climate change.

COP26: Climate change activists slam world leaders for ‘blowing just hot air’

“History will judge them poorly,” Thunberg told a crowd of thousands of activists, dismissing the COP26 summit as “a global greenwash festival” and “a two-week long celebration of business as usual.”

“Many are starting to ask themselves, what will it take for the people in power to wake up? But let’s be clear: they are already wake. They know exactly what they are doing,” she said.

“The leaders are not doing nothing. They are actively creating loopholes … to benefit themselves.”

A UN report released earlier this year called for “urgent steps” to reduce methane emissions if global warming is to be kept within the 1.5C limit laid down in the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change.

The COP26 conference comes as extreme weather disasters have wreaked havoc in the US, Europe, and China this year.