Greta Thunberg Comes to The Madrid Climate Summit on a Boat and Via Portugal

Published December 3rd, 2019 - 12:55 GMT
Greta Thunberg (Twitter)
Greta Thunberg (Twitter)
Highlights
The activist will spend the day holding meetings with Portuguese climate activists and resting before her she departs for Spain.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has arrived in Portugal after completing a voyage across the Atlantic, as the teenager prepares to speak at a climate summit in Madrid.

The Swedish campaigner, 16, and her father Svante travelled more than 3,000 miles from Hampton, Virginia to Lisbon aboard a 48-foot catamaran, the La Vagabonde.

Greta, who became world famous for founding the 'school strikes for the climate' movement, refuses to fly in planes because of the carbon footprint. 

She and her father began their journey on November 13 in order to attend the COP25 summit and save approximately two or three tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Posting on Instagram as she headed into the coastal capital, Greta shared a photograph of herself aboard the vessel and wrote: 'Heading into Lisbon!!'

The activist will spend the day holding meetings with Portuguese climate activists and resting before her she departs for Spain.

The night before her Wednesday arrival, Greta posted a snap of the vessel in rough seas, writing: 'Our last day on the ocean! We can now almost smell land! We expect to arrive at Doca de Santo Amaro, Lisbon sometime between 8.00-10.00 tomorrow morning.' 

Portugal's environment minister Matos Fernandes thanked Greta for her activism in a letter last Thursday, having already departed for COP25.

The country's president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said it was a 'great pleasure' to have her in Lisbon but did not feel it was his place to personally greet the activist. 

Greta missed last Friday's climate strikes as heavy winds delayed her arrival to Lisbon, but she is due to join thousands of activists marching in Madrid this week on the fringes of the COP25.

The two-week gathering kicked off on Monday with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warning that the planet had reached a 'point of no return'. 

Top priorities include establishing a common time frame for countries to implement their national climate commitment plans, and resolving the issue of international carbon markets - the only aspect of the Paris rule book which delegates failed to agree on at last year's COP24 in Poland.

This article has been adapted from its original source.    

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