Greta Thunberg Arrives In Lisbon After Three-Week Voyage From America

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After managing to hitch an eco-friendly ride from America, Greta Thunberg has finally arrived in Lisbon, Portugal. 

It marks the end of a three-week voyage for Greta the teenage climate activist, who travelled from New York in order to attend the United Nations climate summit, called COP25, taking place in Madrid, Spain – which was changed from Chile at the last minute.

This morning, December 3, 16-year-old Thunberg posted on Twitter to let people know she’d reached her destination, writing: ‘Land ahoy!’

The teen later posted further pictures, with one tweet captioned: ‘Heading into Lisbon!!’

Thunberg was generously offered a lift from an Australian family aboard their 48ft yacht. When she arrived at Santo Amaro Port in Lisbon, the teen was greeted by adoring supporters and activists.

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When she arrived, Thunberg told the crowds, as per Newsround: 

We need to work together to make sure that we secure future living conditions for humankind, and that we fight for not only ourselves, but for our children and for our grandchildren and for every single living being on Earth. And everyone has to do everything they can in order to make sure they are on the right side of history.

It feels so amazing to be home back in Europe. I have been on quite an adventure, of course I, as well as the other climate activists, we will not stop, we will continue to do whatever we can, continue to travel around, and to put pressure on people in power and to make sure that they prioritise this the highest.

And eventually we will be going to COP25 and we will continue the fight there to make sure that within those walls, the voices of the people are being heard.

As she kicked off her transatlantic trip, the teen apologised for not being able to visit Chile, writing: ‘I’m so sorry I’ll not be able to visit South and Central America this time… but this is of course not about me, my experiences or where I wish to travel. We’re in a climate and ecological emergency.’

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At the summit, Chile’s environment minister Carolina Schmidt said of Thunberg, via The Guardian: 

She has been a leader that has been able to move and open hearts for many young people and many people all over the world. We need that tremendous force in order to increase climate action.

Thunberg will now head to Madrid for the summit on Friday, which was opened by António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, and Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s caretaker prime minister.

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Cameron Frew

After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.