US Treasury Secretary tells climate activist Thunberg to study before criticising
January 23, 2020
DAVOS: US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday told 17-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg to study economics before harshly criticising the American policy at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
When asked about the Swedish teen's demand for an immediate halt to investment in fossil fuels, Mnuchin told reporters: "After she goes and studies economics in college, she can come back and explain that to us."
Read more: Trump slams environmentalists in Davos speech
The Trump administration and Thunberg have sparred indirectly since Tuesday on panels in Davos but organisers have carefully averted any direct confrontation.
In a speech on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump castigated the "prophets of doom" and those that predicted a climate "apocalypse", while Thunberg sat in the audience.
Also read: Greta Thunberg stares down Trump at UN summit
Shortly before leaving the Swiss ski resort, Trump said he would have "loved" to have met the activist — Time magazine's Person of the Year. Thunberg, on the other hand, repeated her climate warnings, hammering home in her speech that it was time to "panic" because "the house is burning", as she did the previous year in Davos.
