Flanders' climate girl pooh-poohs minister's advances
Anuna De Wever, one of the schoolchildren behind the "Play Truant for the Climate" protests has lashed out at Flemish environment minister Joke Schauvliege (Christian democrat) after the minister said that she felt strengthened by the protests. Last Thursday 35,000 schoolchildren and students protested in Brussels to get politicians to take more action in support of measures to arrest climate change.
Anuna De Wever (pictured below): "Minister Schauvliege should not feel strengthened in her policies because we totally disagree with her policy. We really want to see more ambition and not more of the same. We want a proper Climate plan for 2050 with goals we meet. At the minute this isn't the case.
"I heard her points include an aviation tax. I'm in favour, but put the money in public transport for goodness sake. Something needs to be done about meat consumption. It's a main cause of pollution and it increases the ecological footprint. A deposit for throw-away packaging is a good idea, but that isn't the main thing!"
Anuna De Wever isn't impressed by Ms Schauvliege's ambition to meet with 300 youngsters: "It's not very efficient. She would do better to talk with 300 climate experts. It's such a big problem. We need to take a massive approach and act urgently."
