No, Greta Thunberg did not say that the only way to save the planet is to save the banks

What is the claim?

A video clip of environmental activist Greta Thunberg circulating on social media with the claim that the 20-year-old allegedly said that the only way to save the planet is to save the banks. The video shows Thunberg saying, “The money is there; if we can save the banks, then we can save the world.” 

The 10-second clip, which is viral on TikTok, is embedded with the text, “GRETA-saying the quiet parts loud. The only way to save the planet is to save the banks…Script written by Global banks.” However, Logically Facts found that the clip has been cropped out from a longer video and shared out of context with a misinterpreted, misleading claim. 

What did we find?

The video is taken from Thunberg’s conversation with journalist Naomi Klein for The Intercept in September 2019, when they discussed climate change and action to address it. The original conversation is available on the official YouTube channel of The Intercept. Logically Facts viewed the entire discussion to review the broader context in which Thunberg’s statement was made.

Around the 7:24 timestamp, Klein asks Thunberg if the issue of climate change is “too much, too big or too expensive” to solve. In response to Klein’s question on the costs of tackling climate change, Thunberg responds, around the 7:58 mark, by saying, “The money is there if we can save the banks, then we can save the world. I mean, if there is something we are not lacking in this world, it’s money.” Thunberg added that while many people do lack money, “governments and these people in power, they do not lack money.” She added, “The money is there, but what we lack now is political will and social will to do it (address climate change).”

On examining the original footage, it is clear that the cropped video clip has been shared out of context and misinterprets the wider meaning of Thunberg’s comment. Thunberg did not suggest that to save the world, we must save the banks, but targeted governments for being able to save banks but not doing enough to protect the environment.

Thunberg’s work in advocating for climate action has attracted many false and conspiracy claims, including doubting the existence of climate change and attributing Thunberg’s family ties to the Rothschild family and the World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab – all covered and debunked previously by Logically Facts.

The verdict

In the original footage, Thunberg states that if governments and people in power have enough money to bail out banks, then there is money to address climate change. A part of her statements has been cropped and shared out of context with a misinterpreted message. Therefore, we mark the claim as misleading.