Greta arrives in Portugal ahead of climate summit

LISBON: Swedish teenage eco-warrior Greta Thunberg arrived in Lisbon on Tuesday after crossing the Atlantic in a catamaran to attend a UN climate change summit in Madrid. The 16-year-old was greeted by dozens of environmentalist activists who waited several hours for her to dock in Portugal’s capital.

She arrived at 12:45 GMT to a welcome ceremony attended by Lisbon mayor Fernando Medina. Thunberg, has become the face of young peoples’ demands for climate action and made a point of making the journey back from September’s New York climate summit by sea rather than fuel-guzzling plane. She had expected to be heading for Chile, but the South American nation passed the hosting of the COP25 summit meeting to Spain after suffering a spate of deadly anti-government protests.

Thunberg, British navigator Nikki Henderson and the Australian family who own the vessel set sail back to Europe on the 14-metre (45-foot) La Vagabonde catamaran on November 13 from Hampton, Virginia on a voyage of more than 5,500 kilometres.