At a Glance

More than 60 world leaders are expected to speak.Climate activist Greta Thunberg said, "You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words."French President Emmanuel Macron asked countries to increase their pledges to the Green Climate Fund.

Before world leaders began telling the United Nations on Monday how they plan to combat increasing climate change, teenage activist Greta Thunberg scolded them.

"How dare you," the 16-year-old from Sweden repeated during an emotional speech at the start of the Climate Action Summit.

"This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here," Thunberg said. "I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you have come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words."

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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks at a summit to address climate change at the U.N. on Monday, Sept. 23, 2019, in New York City.

(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

"People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing," a visibly emotional Thunberg said. "We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you."

The Associated Press reported that she said even the strictest emission cuts being discussed only give the world a 50% chance of limiting future warming to another 0.72 degrees Fahrenheit (0.4 degrees Celsius), which is a global goal.

"We will not let you get away with this," Thunberg said. "Right now is where we draw the line."

She ended with a warning, "You’re failing us, but the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say, we will never forgive you."

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres opened the summit by saying: "Earth is issuing a chilling cry: Stop."

He told world leaders it's time to make the world carbon neutral by 2050.

More than 60 world leaders were scheduled to speak during the summit.

President Emmanuel Macron of France asked leaders to include climate change in their trade and finance policies and to not import goods that increase carbon pollution or fund polluting plants in other countries.

Macron also asked countries to increase their pledges to the Green Climate Fund, which helps poorer nations with climate issues. France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Denmark and Sweden have recently doubled their pledges.

"We are now at $7 billion," Macron said. "The target is $10 billion to make up for the United States withdrawal" and he then suggested America should reconsider adding money to other leaders' applause.

President Donald Trump briefly visited the Climate Action Summit on Monday, Sept. 23, 2019, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump, who had not been expected to attend the climate summit, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his remarks, CNN.com reported.

Before he spoke Monday, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who serves as the U.N. special envoy on climate action, mentioned Trump’s quiet appearance, "Hopefully our deliberations will be helpful to you ," Bloomberg said to audience laughter, according to Reuters.

Trump later told reporters, "I’m a big believer in clean air and clean water, and all countries should get together and do that, and they should do it for themselves. Very, very important."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to double her country's climate protection funding.

She said industrialized countries created the crisis and "have the obligation to put our technology, the best of our knowledge, and our finances into stopping global warming as we know it."

"Germany sees its responsibility on the international stage and on the national stage," she said. "Internationally, we shall increase our funding for global climate protection from $2-4 billion euros compared to 2014. In particular, we will aim at $1.5 billion and pay this into the green climate fund."

Maine Gov. Janet Mills addresses the Climate Action Summit in the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Monday, Sept. 23, 2019.

(AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

China's foreign minister Wang Yi took a jab at Trump's plans to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Wang said countries "must honor our commitments and follow through on the Paris Agreement. The withdrawal of certain parties will not shake the collective goal of the world community."

President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands, which are already fighting sea level rise, announced she would seek parliamentary approval to declare a climate crisis on the low-lying atoll. Heine said her country, as well as New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and others who form the "High Ambition" bloc at U.N. climate negotiations, will commit to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, pledged $100 million for support of small-island developing and least developed states to deal with climate change during his speech, the Qatar Tribune reported in a tweet.

And during her talk, Maine Gov. Janet Mills pledged her state will be carbon neutral by 2045, the AP reported. Mills, a Democrat, also said the state has established the Maine Climate Council, which will lead the efforts to reduce emissions and move to adopt cleaner energy, the report added.

"And if our small state can do it, you can. Because we've got to unite to preserve our precious common ground, for our common planet, in uncommon ways for this imperative common purpose," said Mills.

As part of her continuing climate campaign, the Washington Post said with the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child arguing that major countries – Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey – have known about the risks of climate change for decades but have failed to take sufficient action to curb their emissions.