UNITED NATIONS, United States - Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has donated a $100,000 prize she won from a Danish foundation to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for use against the COVID-19 pandemic, the world body said Thursday.
"Like the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic is a child rights crisis," Thunberg, 17, was quoted as saying in the UNICEF statement.
"It will affect all children, now and in the long term, but vulnerable groups will be impacted the most," she added.
"I'm asking everyone to step up and join me in support of UNICEF's vital work to save children's lives, to protect health and continue education."
The Danish anti-poverty non-governmental organization, Human Act, will match the $100,000 donation, the statement added.
UNICEF said the funds would give it a boost as it struggles to support children impacted by anti-virus lockdowns and school closures, particularly in the fields of "food shortages, strained health care systems, violence and lost education."
Thunberg said at the end of March that she had "likely" contracted the coronavirus, after experiencing several symptoms after a trip to central Europe.
Agence France-Presse
BARCELONA - Two titan climate campaigners, Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough, joined forces on Monday to push politicians and businesses to step up action on climate change after a year in which schoolchildren took to the world's streets in protest.
Swedish teen activist Thunberg, who turns 17 this week, said 2019 had been "a very strange year" as millions of young people skipped school to demonstrate over slow progress on tackling climate change, inspired by her weekly vigils at the Swedish parliament.
British naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough, 93, said Thunberg had "aroused the world" about the urgency of reining in global warming, achieving things that people who had worked on the problem for 20-odd years had not.
Attenborough - famous for his TV series showing the impact of environmental degradation on flora and fauna - said he had flagged the need for changes to political structures and daily lives two decades ago, but "no one took a blind bit of notice".
Thunberg urged people to "read up" about climate science and what is being done - or not - to tackle the problem. "We climate activists are being listened to - but that doesn't mean that what we are saying is translated into action," she told BBC Radio 4's Today show on which she was guest editor.
"It needs to be a big shift, and that's what we are waiting for - this tipping point," said Thunberg who has Asperger's syndrome and has also suffered from depression in the past.
Attenborough said it was depressing when governments in the United States, Brazil or Australia indicated they were not taking any notice of what should be done.
"It needs a real electric shock - such as you have produced socially - to bring them to their senses, and let's hope that shock will go on," Attenborough told Thunberg on the Today show.
Thunberg has transformed over the past year from an unknown, solo campaigner to the figurehead of a global movement, winning a list of accolades and awards along the way including being named Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2019 for her work.
Her father Svante explained how he and his wife had changed their lives as their daughter found out about climate science.
He said Greta did not eat for three months, nor speak to people outside her family at one stage, but becoming a climate activist had enabled her to recover and become a happy teenager who "dances around" and "laughs a lot".
The family has since become vegan and no longer uses planes, instead sailing across the Atlantic this year to attend a U.N. climate action summit in New York and then sailing to Spain for December's global climate talks in Madrid.
"I didn't do it to save the climate, I did it to save my child," said her father.
Both Thunberg and Attenborough called on politicians to ensure next year's U.N. climate talks in Scotland produce a successful outcome, with governments due to strengthen their national plans to combat climate change.
The annual conference in Madrid this month was viewed as disappointing, with large carbon-polluting countries resisting pressure to step up their targets to reduce emissions.
"We, and they, must do everything they can to make sure that it doesn't fail and that we succeed in bringing the science into the conversation," Thunberg said.
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NEW YORK - Greta Thunberg, the teen activist from Sweden who has urged immediate action to address a global climate crisis, was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2019 on Wednesday.
Thunberg, 16, was lauded by Time for starting an environmental campaign in August 2018 which became a global movement, initially skipping school and camping out in front of the Swedish Parliament to demand action.
"In the 16 months since, she has addressed heads of state at the U.N., met with the Pope, sparred with the President of the United States and inspired 4 million people to join the global climate strike on September 20, 2019, in what was the largest climate demonstration in human history," the magazine said.
"Margaret Atwood compared her to Joan of Arc. After noticing a hundredfold increase in its usage, lexicographers at Collins Dictionary named Thunberg’s pioneering idea, climate strike, the word of the year," Time said.
Thunberg, who turns 17 in January, continues to beat the drum, saying in Madrid last week that the voices of climate strikers are being heard but politicians are still not taking action.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Toby Chopra and Nick Zieminski)
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Experts are cautious, but bookies are tipping teenage climate campaigner Greta Thunberg for the Nobel Peace Prize next week, while two literature laureates will be crowned after last year's award was postponed over a sex harassment scandal.
Odds from bookmakers such as Ladbrokes indicate the 16-year-old activist is the one to beat for the Nobel Peace Prize after she launched a school strike that inspired millions to join her "Fridays for Future" movement.
However any prediction carries a great deal of uncertainty, since the list of candidates considered by the Nobel Committee isn't made public, and experts are still divided over whether there is a direct link between climate and violent conflicts.
A day before the Peace Prize announcement on October 11 in Oslo, the Swedish Academy, which awards the Literature Prize, will reveal its choices in Stockholm.
The literary body is at pains to restore its honor after a scandal exposed members' scheming, conflicts of interest, and a culture of silence and harassment.
Long held up as Sweden's bearers of culture, Academy members traded barbs in the media and seven of the 18 members resigned. For the first time in 70 years, the 2018 prize was postponed, as the institution found itself without a quorum to make key decisions.
This year, there will be one Literature Prize announced for 2018 and one for 2019, each accompanied by a gold medal and 9 million kronor (830,000 euros or $908,000).
Unless "the winner or winners refuse it" because they think the prize has been tarnished, warned Madelaine Levy, literary critic for Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet.
Each year since the prizes were first awarded in 1901, literary circles are abuzz with speculation -- often more a reflection of their own wishes than any real insight into the Academy's leanings.
Among those mentioned are Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, Kenyan author Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Albania's Ismail Kadare, US novelist Joyce Carol Oates and Haruki Murakami of Japan.
The Academy is widely expected to try to steer clear of controversy this year, and is therefore seen making conservative picks. The laureates are expected to include at least one woman.
The unorthodox decision to honor US singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in 2016 outraged traditionalists.
The subsequent 2017 nod to "Remains of the Day" author Kazuo Ishiguro, a British novelist of Japanese origin, was seen as a consensual choice aimed at making amends.
A French Weinstein
The Academy's turmoil began in November 2017, when 18 women spoke out in the media and accused a cultural figure with close ties to the Academy of sexual assault, rape and harassment.
That was shortly after the start of the global #MeToo anti-sexism movement sparked by allegations against US movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
In the Swedish affair, the cultural figure was revealed to be Jean-Claude Arnault, a Frenchman married to Academy member Katarina Frostenson.
The allegations caused a rift in the venerable institution over how to handle their ties to him, unleashing a vicious power struggle.
In an extremely rare move, Academy patron King Carl XVI Gustaf stepped in, changing the statutes to enable members -- appointed for life -- to be able to resign.
Arnault has since been convicted of rape and is serving a two-and-a-half year sentence, while his wife has quit the Academy.
Having appointed new members, the Academy has vowed more transparency.
Peace Prize for Greta?
Last year, the honor of the Nobel Peace Prize went to two champions of the fight against sexual violence, Congolese rape surgeon Denis Mukwege and Yazidi campaigner Nadia Murad.
The bookmakers' favorite this year is Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who recently won Amnesty International's highest honor.
The 16-year-old has mobilized millions of youths since starting her "School Strike for the Climate" alone outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018.
"What she has done over the past year is extraordinary," said Dan Smith, the director of Stockholm international peace research institute SIPRI.
"Climate change is an issue which is strongly related to security and peace."
However, his counterpart at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, Henrik Urdal, said he didn't think she would win.
"Extremely unlikely," he said, noting her young age and the fact that a link between climate change and armed conflict remains unproven.
Also mentioned as possible winners are Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has made peace with his bitter foe Eritrea, and NGOs including Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The Norwegian Nobel Committee received 301 nominations this year, but it never discloses the names.
The Nobel season opens Monday with the Medicine Prize, followed by the Physics and Chemistry Prizes. The awards wind up on October 14 with the Economics Prize.
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STOCKHOLM - Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday won the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the "alternative Nobel Prize", the jury for the Swedish human rights prize said.
Thunberg was honored "for inspiring and amplifying political demands for urgent climate action reflecting scientific facts," the Right Livelihood Foundation said in a statement.
"Her resolve to not put up with the looming climate disaster has inspired millions of peers to also raise their voices and demand immediate climate action," it added.
Thunberg's global climate movement "Fridays for Future" began in August 2018 when she started sitting alone outside Sweden's parliament with her now iconic sign reading "school strike for the climate".
The message has struck a chord with youths around the world. Last Friday, an estimated four million plus people took to the streets in over 150 countries to join the "Global Climate Strike" protest, demanding action from politicians against climate disaster.
This year's Right Livelihood Award also honors three others, including Sahrawi human rights activist Aminatou Haidar "for her steadfast non-violent action, despite imprisonment and torture, in pursuit of justice and self-determination for the people of Western Sahara".
Lawyer Guo Jianmei received the award for her "pioneering and persistent work" for women's rights in China.
The Brazilian Hutukara Yanomami Association and its leader Davi Kopenawa were also honored for their "courageous determination to protect the forests and biodiversity of the Amazon, and the lands and culture of its indigenous peoples."
The Right Livelihood Award was created in 1980 by Swedish-German philatelist Jakob von Uexkull after the Nobel Foundation behind the Nobel Prizes refused to create awards honoring efforts in the fields of the environment and international development.
The award consists of a cash prize of one million Swedish kronor ($103,000 or 94,000 euro) for each laureate, meant to support the recipient's work.
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UNITED NATIONS - Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg shot back at on Tuesday at U.S. President Donald Trump's attempt to mock her on Twitter by changing her profile on the social media site to reflect Trump's taunting remark.
Late on Monday Trump retweeted a clip of the 16-year-old's speech to a United Nations climate summit in which she angrily denounced world leaders for failing to tackle climate change by demanding: "How dare you?"
Trump, 73, commented: "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!"
By Tuesday Thunberg shot back, changing her Twitter biography to: "A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."
A Reuters video of Thunberg glaring at Trump as he entered the United Nations in New York on Monday went viral on social media. Trump has questioned climate science and has challenged every major U.S. regulation aimed at combating climate change.
Thunberg started missing school on Fridays a year ago to protest for climate action outside the Swedish parliament, inspiring millions of children and sparking a global climate strike movement known as Fridays for Future.
On Tuesday, the hashtags #GretaThunbergOutdidTrump and #BeBest were trending in the United States. Be Best Melania Trump's campaign against cyber bullying.
Thunberg is in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the few people whose nomination has become known before the awards ceremony. She is the bookmakers' favorite to win the prize next month.
Trump has made the case that he deserves to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and commented again on Monday when asked about the topic.
"I think I'm going to get a Nobel Prize for a lot of things, if they gave it out fairly, which they don't," Trump said.
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NEW YORK, United States—An angry and emotional Greta Thunberg berated older generations as she spoke before the United Nations Climate Action Summit Monday.
Her speech was punctuated by her frustration over the inaction to address climate change.
“How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones,” the 16-year-old climate activist said before delegates from different countries.
“People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
Thunberg’s speech set the tone of the climate action summit, which is meant to boost climate commitments of countries in time for the 2020 deadline of the Paris agreement.
The agreement aims to curb global heating to at least 2 degrees Celsius in order to combat climate change.
Thunberg, who was the face of the global youth climate strikes last Friday, called the goal of cutting carbon emissions in half in 10 years as unacceptable, especially since young people like her will have to live with its consequences.
“How dare you pretend that this can be solved with business-as-usual and some technical solutions?” she said.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis said in a video message that country pledges were still inadequate.
“Four years after that historic agreement (Paris 2015), we can see that the commitments made by states are still very weak,” he said. “Indeed they are far from achieving the objectives set.”
Pope Francis said it was “necessary to ask whether there is a real political will to allocate greater human, financial and technological resources to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and to help the poorest and most vulnerable populations, who suffer the most.”
"While the situation is not good and the planet is suffering, the window of opportunity is still open," the pope added.
ACTION SUMMIT
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the Climate Action Summit is not for talking or negotiations but action.
He acknowledged the failure of his generation “in its responsibility to protect our planet.”
“That must change,” he said.
Guterres, who spoke before Thunberg and the other youth activists, repeatedly referred to the calls of young people.
“I believe it's the duty of all decision makers in the world, not only to listen to the voice of young people and to do what they ask us to do, but also to support them in their own action for climate action around the world."
He also did not mince words when it came to countries that receive money from fossil fuel companies or those that construct more coal plants.
“Is it common sense to build ever more coal plants that are choking our future?Is it common sense to reward pollution that kills millions with dirty air and makes it dangerous for people in cities around the world to sometimes even venture out of their homes?” he said.
The main point of the summit was the commitments announced by various world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel who pledged that her country will become carbon neutral by 2050 and Indian Prime Minister Narendran Modi’s target to further increase their renewable energy goals.
“In 2030 we want to get two-thirds of our energy from renewables,” Merkel said. “In 2022 we will phase out the last of our nuclear power plants, and at latest, in 2038 we will phase out coal.”
According to the World Resources Institute, there are now 65 nations that committed to enhancing their climate goals for 2020. This does not include the Philippines.
During the climate finance session, French President Emmanuel Macron asked other countries to increase their contributions to the Green Climate Fund after the United States withdrew from it.
Incidentally, US President Donald Trump, who was expected to skip the event as he did with other previous climate meetings, managed to drop by the opening session.
He listened to Modi and stayed for 14 minutes.
The rest of the one-day summit will be filled with speeches from other world leaders and side events like press conferences from country coalitions.
As for the Philippines, the government did not send any of its cabinet members to what the Climate Change Commission (CCC) calls a historic summit.
Instead, attending the event are one official each from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Economic and Development Authority and three advisors from the CCC.
Civil society groups have expressed concern over the seeming lack of interest of interest of the Philippine government in actually participating in negotiations. It has also yet to update its climate commitments, which is due by 2020.
While CCC Secretary Emmanuel de Guzman did not attend the summit, he sent a statement asking for climate actions that are inclusive, fair and equitable.
“Now, more than ever, developed countries must ensure the flow of climate finance towards developing countries. We hope that the summit will provide clarity and direction for achieving the climate finance goal enshrined in the Paris Agreement,” De Guzman said.
President Rodrigo Duterte has acknowledged the effects of climate change but has focused on the need for accountability of developed countries.
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NEW YORK, United States—Huge numbers of children skipped school Friday to join a global strike against climate change that teen activist Greta Thunberg hopes will mark a turning point in persuading leaders to act against environmental disaster.
Chanting slogans and waving placards, youngsters and adults filled the streets of cities across the world in what was expected to be the biggest ever protest against the threat posed to the planet by warming temperatures.
Demonstrations across Asia and the Pacific kicked off the day of action, which spread to Africa and Europe, with crowds turning out in Paris, London and Berlin, before nearing their completion in the United States where Thunberg rallied.
"I hope this will be another social tipping point that we show how many people are engaged, how many people are putting pressure on leaders," the 16-year-old told AFP in New York.
Organizers forecast protests in more than 5,000 locations across 137 countries. In Australia alone, they said more than 300,000 children, parents and supporters rallied.
Although there was no official turnout, Thunberg said "millions" had participated.
"It can't go on any longer. We are at the end of our planet," said Bernie Waldman, 14, one of thousands to protest in New York, where 1.1 million students were permitted to skip school for the event.
In Slovakia, 5-year-old Teo asked a crowd of 500 "not to cut down forests, and reduce garbage production and not to use so many petrol-fuelled cars."
"Stop climate change now" and "There is no planet B" read some of the signs brandished by demonstrators in a trendy central shopping district of Tokyo.
"We adults caused this planet emergency. We should take our responsibilities for the next generation," said Chika Maruta, 32.
'WE DESERVE BETTER'
Swedish schoolgirl Thunberg called on leaders to act now to curb gas emissions.
"Now we have proven what we can do, now they have to prove what they can (do). They need to take their responsibility," she said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel used Friday to pledge at least 100 billion euros by 2030 to tackle emissions in the energy and industrial sectors, boost zero tailpipe emission electric vehicles and get passengers out of planes and onto trains.
About 200 marched in Ghana's capital Accra, where some 44 percent of the country's population has not heard of climate change, according to a study by Afrobarometer.
"Developing countries like Ghana are the most affected. We don't have the resources to adapt to climate change," said 26-year-old protest organizer Ellen Lindsey Awuku.
Hundreds also took to the streets in Kenya and Uganda.
Events began in the deluge-threatened Pacific Islands of Vanuatu, the Solomons and Kiribati, where children chanted: "We are not sinking, we are fighting."
The defiance message was heard across Asia.
"We are the future and we deserve better," 12-year-old Lilly Satidtanasarn, known as "Thailand's Greta" for her campaign against plastic bags in malls, told AFP in Bangkok.
'YOU'RE BEING LIED TO'
In Australia, some local authorities, schools and businesses encouraged people to participate in the strikes.
Australia has been struck in recent years by droughts, more intense bushfires, devastating floods and the blanching of the Great Barrier Reef—phenomena blamed on a changing climate.
Numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown a link between human-made gas emissions and climate change.
But the protests also highlighted resistance from those who question the threat.
Australian ruling coalition parliamentarian Craig Kelly told children Thursday that "everything you're told is a lie."
"The facts are, there is no link between climate change and drought, polar bears are increasing in number."
BUSINESSES TAKING ACTION
An increasing number of businesses backed the protests.
Amazon chief Jeff Bezos pledged Thursday to make the US retail giant carbon neutral by 2040 and encouraged other firms to do likewise.
Friday's mass action set the scene for a range of high-profile climate events in New York.
A Youth Climate Summit will take place at the United Nations on Saturday.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will then host an emergency summit on Monday in which he will urge world leaders to raise their commitments made in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
The agreement saw countries pledge to limit the long-term rise in the average temperature of the Earth to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, and if possible, to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
A landmark UN report to be unveiled next week will warn that global warming and pollution are ravaging Earth's oceans and icy regions in ways that could unleash misery on a global scale.
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