Greta Thunberg to arrive in Madrid in time for climate summit

The teenager disembarked a boat taking her from Virginia to Lisbon on Tuesday

Climate change activist Greta Thunberg speaks upon her arrival at Santo Amaro port in Lisbon, Portugal December 3, 2019. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes
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Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg reached Lisbon on Tuesday after a lengthy voyage across the Atlantic to attend a climate summit in Spain.

Miss Thunberg, 16, who refuses to fly for environmental reasons, will attend a protest in Madrid on Friday at the COP25 summit.

The summit was initially to be held in Chile but was moved to Spain due to unrest in the South American country.

It is not known how she will travel to Madrid when she docks in Lisbon, where she was greeted by the Portuguese capital’s mayor, Fernando Medina, with young Portuguese environmental campaigners inspired by Miss Thunberg.

“Land ahoy!” Miss Thunberg tweeted on Tuesday, sharing a picture of the shore from the 14-metre La Vagabonde catamaran she was aboard.

The Fridays for Future activist set sail from Hamilton, Virginia, on November 13 after touring several US cities to campaign for governments to do more to protect the environment.

“In one way, lots of things have changed and lots of things have moved in the right direction,” she told AFP before setting off.

“But also, in a sense, we have gone a few more months without real action being taken and without people realising the emergency we are in.”