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• Greta Thunberg isn’t qualified to lecture the US on climate change, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the World Economic Forum on Thursday.

• “Is she the chief economist or who is she? I’m confused,” Mnuchin jokingly replied to a question about the Swedish teenager’s call for America to quit fossil fuels.

• “After she goes and studies economics in college she can come back and explain that to us,” he added.

• “It doesn’t take a college degree in economics to realise that our remaining 1,5° carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments don’t add up,” Thunberg fired back.

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Greta Thunberg isn’t qualified to lecture the US on climate change, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“Is she the chief economist or who is she? I’m confused,” Mnuchin jokingly replied to a question about the Swedish teenager’s call for America to immediately transition away from fossil fuels, according to Reuters.

“After she goes and studies economics in college, she can come back and explain that to us,” he added.

“It doesn’t take a college degree in economics to realise that our remaining 1,5° carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments don’t add up,” Thunberg fired back on Twitter.

Thunberg warned Davos attendees this week that time was running out to reduce emissions and combat climate change. Pointing to recent and ongoing infernos in California, the Amazon, and Australia, the activist said the world, “in case you hadn’t noticed, is currently on fire.”

President Donald Trump also downplayed Thunberg’s warnings this week. He advised the Davos crowd to “reject the perennial prophets of doom” and ignore environmental “alarmists” and their “predictions of the apocalypse.”

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