Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Monday said that she would cross the Atlantic Ocean on a racing sailboat to attend a UN climate summit in New York in September.
“I’ve been offered a ride on the 60ft [18m] racing boat Malizia II. We’ll be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the UK to NYC in mid August,” Thunberg, 16, said on Twitter.
It would be her first visit to the US since she launched her environmental drive a year ago.
Photo: AFP
Thunberg — who has inspired thousands of her peers in many parts of the world to press their elders to act on climate change — refuses to fly owing to its negative effect on the environment.
German Boris Herrmann and that the Monaco-based founder of the Malizia team Pierre Casiraghi would steer the boat, which is to carry a sail marked “#Fridays for future.”
The phrase stems from Thunberg’s decision to skip school on Fridays so she could push for action against climate change in front of the Swedish legislature.
“After months of research and considering different options for her journey, Greta will sail across the Atlantic in a zero-carbon racing boat called Malizia II, a foiling sailboat built in 2015, which is fitted with solar panels and underwater turbines to generate electricity on board the vessel,” Herrmann said on his Web site.
Once in the US, she is to take part in “large-scale climate demonstrations on Sept. 20 and 27 and speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, hosted by [UN] Secretary-General Antonio Guterres,” he added.
Thunberg also plans to visit Canada and Mexico, and attend the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) in Santiago in early December, Herrmann said, with other South American stops also planned.
Her spokesman could not be reached on Monday for confirmation of the complete itinerary, but people close to Thunberg have already said that she would attend the COP25 conference.
The Guardian said she would also be accompanied by her father, Svante, and a filmmaker.
Casiraghi, the grandson of Monegasque Prince Rainier III and US-born actor Grace Kelly, has said that the boat’s name was taken from the Moneguesque language and means “the wily one.”
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