Greta Thunberg: Who is the climate activist and what has she achieved?

Greta Thunberg has pleaded not guilty to a public order offence after her arrest at a protest in central London in October.

It follows two fines for disobeying the police during demonstrations in Sweden.

Over the past five years, the 20-year-old has become one of the world's best-known climate change campaigners.

Who is Greta Thunberg and how did she become a climate activist?

Ms Thunberg was born in the Swedish capital Stockholm in 2003 to father Svante Thunberg, an actor, and mother Malena Ernman, an opera singer.

She first learned about climate change when she was eight.

When she was 11 or 12, she started suffering from depression, according to her father, Svante: "She stopped talking... she stopped going to school," he said.

Around the same time she was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.

In summer 2018, aged 15, Ms Thunberg held the first "School Strike for Climate" outside the Swedish parliament.

The protest was widely covered, and hundreds of thousands of young people across the world joined her Fridays For Future strikes.

Mr Thunberg says his daughter became "much happier" after she started campaigning.

She has described her autism diagnosis as a "superpower" which helped motivate her protests.

"Being different is a gift," she told the BBC. "If I would've been like everyone else, I wouldn't have started this school strike."

Between 2019 and 2020, she took a year out of school to concentrate on activism, and became famous for her impassioned speeches to world leaders.

She left school in summer 2023, and ended her school climate strikes.

What have been her most famous speeches?

In April 2019, aged 16, Ms Thunberg told members of the European Parliament: "Our house is falling apart and our leaders need to start acting accordingly, because at the moment they are not."

Five months later, she sailed by yacht across the Atlantic to address a UN climate action summit in New York.

"I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean," she told delegates. "Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words."

Speaking at a youth protest in Glasgow in 2021, following the COP26 climate change summit, she said: "[World leaders have held] 26 COPs. They have had decades of blah, blah, blah - and where has that got us?"

Why is she on trial in the UK?

On 17 October, Ms Thunberg was arrested with four protestors from the Fossil Free London group. They had gathered near the InterContinental Hotel in Mayfair, where an energy conference was taking place.

She appeared on 15 November at Westminster Magistrates' Court, accused of a public order offence, which she denies.

The protestors were granted unconditional bail ahead of a trial at City of London Magistrates' Court, which is due to start on 1 February.

In October 20023, she was fined 2,250 krona ($206; £168) by a court in Sweden for refusing to obey a police order to leave a protest at the port of Malmo.

Three months earlier, the same court had fined her 2,500 krona ($240; £187) for a similar offence at the port.

On both occasions, she and protestors from the group Reclaim the Future blocked a road used for transporting oil.

What awards has Greta Thunberg won?

Ms Thunberg has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year between 2019 and 2023.

In 2019, she became the youngest-ever Time Person of the Year.

Also in 2019, she won the Right Livelihood Award (known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) and Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award, and was listed by Forbes as one of the world's 100 most powerful women.

In 2022, she brought out The Climate Book, which contains essays from 100 scientists, writers and activists about how to combat the climate crisis.

What have Greta Thunberg's critics said about her?

At the start of 2023, controversial media personality Andrew Tate baited Ms Thunberg on X, formerly Twitter, by listing his 33 cars and offering to send her details of their "enormous emissions".

She responded with a sarcastic tweet which was liked by several million people and shared widely.

Shortly afterwards, broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer called her "a half-educated, autistic, doom-mongering eco-cultist," in a tweet that she subsequently deleted.

She was also mocked on Twitter by former US President Donald Trump when she won the Time magazine award. He said: "Greta must work on her Anger Management problem... Chill Greta, Chill!".

Russian President Vladimir Putin described her as a "kind, but poorly informed, teenager".

What has Greta Thunberg's campaigning achieved?

Although Ms Thunberg has not devised any specific environmental strategies, she is credited with raising public awareness of climate change across the world, especially amongst young people.

Many commentators call this "the Greta effect".

Broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough told her: "You have aroused the world. I'm very grateful to you."

 

Photo: REUTERS