Greta Thunberg tells the media to stop focusing on her and listen to other climate change activists because her story ‘has been told over and over’
- 16-year-old Greta Thunberg said journalists shouldn’t listen to her over others
- She said: ‘It’s absurd. I don’t like to be the centre of attention all the time’
- Reportedly likely to leave UN climate summit meeting early this week to go home
The 16-year-old activist arrived in Madrid last Friday, following a three-week sailing trip across the Atlantic, because she has sworn off flying due to the threat it poses for the environment
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg announced to 420 reporters that she is tired of the relentless media attention she is getting.
The 16-year-old activist arrived in Madrid last Friday, following a three-week sailing trip across the Atlantic, because she has sworn off flying due to the threat it poses for the environment.
Greta was joined by other activists at an event at La Casa Encendida where the COP25 United Nations climate change conference is being held.
Speaking alongside prominent German activist Luisa Neubauer at a UN climate meeting in Madrid today, Thunberg said their stories ‘have been told over and over again.’
‘There is no need to listen to us anymore,’ she said.
‘It is people especially from the global south, especially from indigenous communities, who need to tell their stories,’ she said before handing the mic to young activists from the United States, the Philippines, Russia, Uganda, Chile and the Marshall Islands.
Speaking alongside prominent German activist Luisa Neubauer (pictured together) at a UN climate meeting in Madrid today, Thunberg said their stories ‘have been told over and over again’
She added: ‘There is no need to listen to us anymore’. Greta is pictured leaving the Complutense University of Madrid after attending a climate change meeting there yesterday
She told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet: ‘It’s absurd. I don’t like to be the centre of attention all the time, but it’s a positive thing’
The 420 journalists there mainly directed their questions to Ms Thunberg, prompting her to say: ‘They shouldn’t listen to me before anyone else. I am a small part of a very big movement.’
She told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet: ‘It’s absurd. I don’t like to be the centre of attention all the time, but it’s a positive thing.
‘As long as the press writes about me, they are also writing about the climate crisis.’
The teenager later took part in a climate march attended by roughly 25,000 people.
Teenage climate activist Great Thunberg pictured arriving at a climate change protest march in Madrid, Spain, following a summit that she refused to fly to because she is worried about the environment
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg today told a panel at a UN climate summit that the movement is ‘getting bigger and bigger’ but ‘of course that does not translate into political action’. Ms Thunberg made the comments to a panel in Madrid where she arrived on Friday clutching her famous ‘school strike for climate’ banner as she joined thousands of other young people in a march to demand world leaders take real action against climate change
Two were arrested and six police officers were injured during the march, which also saw Spanish actor Javier Bardem call the Mayor of Madrid ‘stupid’ for his opinions on climate change.
The actor has since apologised.
Ms Thunberg was then forced to leave early for security reasons and fellow activists from her Fridays for Future movement said she was upset that she was being followed so much.
Yesterday she turned up to a meeting at Madrid’s Complutense University wearing a hooded sweatshirt that covered her face as she prepared the agenda for this week.
Greta Thunberg arrives in Madrid clutching her famous ‘climate strike’ protest sign as she prepares to lead marchers outside a UN conference taking place in the city
She chose the university as the meeting place because hundreds of other environmental groups meet there and it is informally referred to as the HQ of the ‘counter-summit’.
She reportedly said she wanted a secondary role in two upcoming meetings this week – today at the COP25 summit and on Wednesday when she is set to meet representatives of the climate movement from Chile and Spain with Harrison Ford.
The Spanish spokesman for Fridays for Future told El Pais: ‘She gets really stressed out with all the media pressure.
‘She feels more comfortable in safe spaces.’
Ms Thunberg is reportedly unlikely to stay until the last day of the summit on Friday and is anxious to get back to Stockholm to be with her mother.