Who is Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg is a Swedish climate activist born on 3 January 2003 in Stockholm. She became known as a student demanding action on global warming and has worked through protests, speeches, publications and support for social organisations. [2]
The beginning of the school strike
In August 2018, aged fifteen, she began a school strike outside Sweden’s parliament. She attended every school day during the three weeks before the election. On 8 September she and fellow participants decided to continue on Fridays, the beginning of Fridays for Future. [1]
The movement’s international reach was visible at the UN Youth Climate Summit in September 2019. It brought together young people from more than 140 countries and territories. Thunberg joined other activists in a forum for proposals and collective pressure on governments and businesses. [8]
International appearances
In December 2018 she addressed COP24 in Katowice on behalf of Climate Justice Now. Her speech focused on equity, fossil-fuel dependence and responsibilities towards future generations, bringing the school protest into a multilateral climate forum. [5]
In August 2019 she reached New York after a two-week Atlantic sailing crossing. The journey enabled her participation in United Nations climate events while making her decision to avoid flying visible. Her arrival was welcomed through activities linked to the Sustainable Development Goals. [6]
On 23 September 2019 she spoke at the opening of the UN Climate Action Summit. Addressing leaders, businesses and civil society, she challenged the gap between announced commitments and the response to the crisis. She participated as an invited activist in an event involving many speakers and proposals. [7]
In 2021 she joined Vanessa Nakate and other young campaigners at Youth4Climate in Milan. She again challenged promises of transformation unsupported by sufficient action. The event preceded COP26 and brought activists from many countries together to present their demands within international processes. [9]
Books and public communication
No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference appeared in 2019. It collects speeches delivered to audiences ranging from demonstrations to the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and Britain’s parliament. The speech format shows how she presented her climate message in different settings. [10]
Our House Is on Fire is a family memoir co-authored with Malena Ernman, Beata Ernman and Svante Thunberg. Its English edition appeared in 2020. It connects the family’s personal experiences with their engagement in the environmental crisis, offering a different form from her collected speeches. [11]
For The Climate Book (2022), she brought together more than a hundred contributors from climate science, engineering, economics and history, alongside Indigenous voices. Her role was to assemble these perspectives and contribute reflections on activism; the scientific explanations are the work of the respective contributors. [12]
Documentaries and public experience
Nathan Grossman’s documentary I Am Greta (2020) followed her activities and screened out of competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival. Thunberg is its subject; direction, cinematography and editing belong to the filmmaking team. [13]
Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World, broadcast in 2021, was a three-part BBC Studios series with PBS. It followed the year of travel she began in 2019 and included discussions with scientists and other specialists about the changes and responses she encountered. [14]
In a later PBS interview she explained that the pandemic had cancelled the planned Asian itinerary. She also described moving from a quiet school life to international exposure and then lockdown. Her stated aim for the series was to give scientific knowledge a wider public voice. [15]
Recognition
In 2019 she received the Right Livelihood Award for mobilising demands for climate action grounded in scientific facts. [2]
Amnesty International jointly honoured Thunberg and Fridays for Future with its 2019 Ambassador of Conscience Award. The ceremony took place in Washington, alongside events for activists in other cities. The recognition was shared with the wider youth-strike movement. [16]
TIME named her its 2019 Person of the Year. At sixteen, she was the youngest individual recipient. [17]
In 2020 she won the inaugural Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, worth one million euros. She announced that her foundation would distribute the award, beginning with support for SOS Amazonia and Stop Ecocide. The prize financed other organisations as well as recognising her campaigning. [18]
Foundation and humanitarian contributions
The Greta Thunberg Foundation was established in 2019 to direct awards, royalties and donations towards environmental and social initiatives. It publishes annual reports and grant recipients. Its remit includes climate, biodiversity and human and animal rights, while recipient organisations undertake their own programmes. [19]
In April 2020 she and Human Act launched a UNICEF campaign addressing the pandemic’s effects on children. Its initial US$200,000 combined US$100,000 of prize money from her foundation and a matching Human Act contribution, supporting UNICEF emergency programmes. [20]
In April 2021 she announced a €100,000 donation through her foundation to the WHO Foundation in support of COVAX. The campaign advocated more equitable vaccine access; WHO identified health workers, older people and people with underlying conditions among the priority groups. [21]
Claims and other campaigns
In September 2019 she was one of sixteen children from twelve countries who submitted a climate complaint to the Committee on the Rights of the Child. It sought examination of state obligations concerning climate change’s effects on their rights. [22]
The 2021 decision concerning Germany found the communication inadmissible because domestic remedies had not been exhausted. This procedural outcome prevented a ruling on the merits; it was not a judgment establishing the responsibility sought by the applicants. [23]
In February 2024 she was acquitted in London of a charge arising from an October 2023 protest at the Energy Intelligence Forum. According to her lawyers’ statement, the judge found the police conditions unclear, unreasonable and inadequately communicated. [24]
Her activism has also included solidarity with Palestinians. In June 2025 she travelled on the Madleen, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessel seeking to take aid to Gaza. Amnesty International documented her participation and the vessel’s interception by Israeli forces. [25]
