Jaguar Land Rover boss: Greta Thunberg has ‘no ideas’ about how to tackle climate change
- Ralf Speth said Thunberg’s complaints about climate change are ‘populistic’
- He said that Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion were ‘doing wrong in many areas’
Greta Thunberg’s complaints about climate change are ‘populistic’ and offer ‘no ideas’ about how to tackle the issue, the outgoing boss of Jaguar Land Rover has claimed.
The teenage environmental activist had provided a useful wake-up call to governments and businesses but has yet to offer any practical solutions, according to Ralf Speth.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Thunberg, 17, called for an immediate end to investment in polluting fossil fuels and subsidies to companies that use them.
Greta Thunberg’s complaints about climate change are ‘populistic’, said JLR boss Ralf Speth
She previously accused world leaders of ‘stealing’ her childhood by failing to take radical action to slash carbon emissions.
But Speth, 64, claimed that Thunberg and groups such as Extinction Rebellion were ‘doing wrong in many areas’ by criticising businesses and politicians so harshly.
‘This kind of very populistic criticism – we destroyed her life, killed this and that – is not justified because we also created a better life,’ he told the Sunday Times.
‘Wealth, health, education – the world is getting better.
‘There is still a lot to do. But populism should be combined with ideas to make it better.
‘There is no contribution, no ideas, just: “You’re all stupid”.’