By Nuru Ahmed
Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teen climate activist, will donate 1 million euros ($1.14 million) from a new prize she has won to groups tackling climate change and defending nature. This is after she was named winner of the Gulbenkian Prize for humanity.
Thunberg said: “all the prize money will be donated through her foundation to different organisations and projects who are working to help people on the frontlines affected by the climate crisis and ecological crisis, especially in the Global South.”
She added that she will donate the prize to charitable projects that are combating “climate and ecological crisis.”
One of Thunberg’s first two donations of 100,000 euros each will go to SOS Amazonia, a crowdfunding campaign launched in June to buy medical supplies and provide telemedicine services to residents of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.
The second will back the Stop Ecocide Foundation, which is lobbying for the Hague-based International Criminal Court to prosecute people responsible for large-scale destruction of the natural world.
“We are in a climate emergency and my foundation will as quickly as possible donate all the prize to support organisations and projects that are fighting for a sustainable world” noted Thunberg.
She was selected from 136 nominees in 46 countries for the prize, launched by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, a Portuguese philanthropic organization established in 1956 to promote arts, charity, science and education.
The prize awarded each year aims to recognize people, groups of people and organizations from all over the world who contribute to mitigation and adaptation to climate change stand out for it’s novelty, innovation and impact.
Jorge Sampaio, chairman of the prize’s grand jury and former president of Portugal, applauded Greta “one of the most remarkable figures of our days” for her ability to mobilise younger generations in support of action to tackle climate change.
Sampaio highlighted that her charismatic and inspiring personality and her tenacious struggle to alter a status quo that persists, makes her one of the most remarkable figure.
Thunberg marked the 100th week of the student climate protests she started by holding a solitary vigil outside the Swedish parliament in mid-2018.
Her example has inspired millions of young people around the world to skip classes on Fridays to hold marches calling for political attention to stop the warming of the planet. Coronavirus restrictions have now forced those efforts online.
Thunberg has also addressed U.N. summits and politicians, from Europe to North America, urging them to heed scientists’ warnings on the need for a swift response to avert the worst effects of wilder weather and rising seas as the Earth heats up.
She was as well awarded Time Magazine’s Person of the year 2019, the teen has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize.
