Climate champion Greta Thunberg plans to set sail for Americas on zero-carbon trip

(Reuters News, 29 Jul 2019) Swedish teen will head to the United States by boat to push decision-makers at key summits to step up climate action.

Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg is taking a year off school to pursue her campaign to curb global warming in the Americas, which she will reach by sailboat on a transatlantic voyage.

She will travel from Britain to the United States, leaving in mid-August on the Malizia II, a racing boat fitted with solar panels and underwater turbines that produce electricity onboard, making the journey zero-carbon, a statement said on Monday.

Once she arrives, the 16-year-old plans to join large-scale climate demonstrations, and speak at a climate action summit hosted by the U.N. chief in New York City on Sept. 23.

Thunberg will then use low-carbon transport to travel to the annual U.N. climate conference in Santiago, Chile, in December, with stop-offs at other Latin American sites that are key to tackling climate change, as well as visiting Canada and Mexico.

"During the past year, millions of young people have raised their voice to make world leaders wake up to the climate and ecological emergency. Over the next months, the events in New York and Santiago de Chile will show if they have listened," she said in a statement.

"Together with many other young people across the Americas and the world, I will be there, even if the journey will be long and challenging. We will make our voices heard. It is our future on the line, and we must at least have a say in it," she added.

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Reuters News, 29 Jul 2019: Climate champion Greta Thunberg plans to set sail for Americas on zero-carbon trip