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United Nations to welcome Greta Thunberg with 17 sailboats

Greta will arrive in the US ahead of her participation in the United Nations climate summit next month.

United Nations to welcome Greta Thunberg with 17 sailboats

Greta Thunberg. (Photo: Twitter/@GretaThunberg

Sweden’s teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, who set sail from England to attend the United Nations summit in New York on an eco-friendly yacht, will be welcomed by the international organisations with 17 sailboats.

Thunberg, who refuses to travel by air to avoid excessive polluting emissions, is set to arrive in New York on Wednesday in a sailing yacht that departed from plymouth ten days ago and will be welcomed by the UN with a fleet of sailing boats. The UN is scheduled to receive Thunberg with 17 sailboats, each of them representing one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. According to the organization, the vessels have been provided by UN partners.

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The 16-year-old Thunberg, who has taken a sabbatical year from school, is being accompanied by her father, two sailors, and a documentary maker. After crossing the Atlantic,the expedition will arrive in the US ahead of her participation in the UN climate summit at the end of September. Her itinerary will also take her to Canada, Mexico and finally Chile, where she plans to attend another conference on the climate emergency in December.

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The young Swede plans to travel only by using public trains and buses from one end of the American continent to the other. The yacht in which Thunberg set sail is equipped with solar panels and underwater turbines that allow the use of electricity on-board without emitting any carbon dioxide.

Thunberg came into public eye when she skipped her school to protest outside the Swedish Parliament urging the government to take action to prevent climate change. She has spoken on multiple platforms since then urging world leaders to take strict action and end the use of fossil fuels and deforestation for industrial development.

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