Swedish activist refuses environmental award

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg declined Nordic Council’s environmental award 2019, saying climate movement does not need awards.

"I have decided to decline this prize. Here’s why: 'I am currently traveling through California and therefore not able to be present with you today. I want to thank the Nordic Council for this award. It is a huge honour.

"But the climate movement does not need any more awards. What we need is for our politicians and the people in power start to listen to the current, best available science," Thunberg said on Instagram late Tuesday.

Thunberg won the prize for her mobilization of millions of people around the world to demand climate action.

The 16-year-old climate activist was first known for her "skolstrejk för klimatet", or school strike for the climate, protests in August 2018 outside the Swedish parliament.

Thunberg's "Fridays for Future" protests, which began in her native country Sweden but since have become a global phenomenon, have sought to bring world governments into full compliance with the Paris Climate Accord.

"We belong to the countries that have the possibility to do the most. And yet our countries still basically do nothing.

"So until you start to act in accordance with what the science says is needed to limit the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees or even 2 degrees Celsius, I - and Fridays For Future in Sweden - choose not to accept the Nordic Councils environmental award nor the prize money of 500,000 Swedish kronor [$51,506]," Thunberg said.