Greta Thunberg sports her infamous 'Trump death stare' and joins protesters in Madrid after telling UN climate summit her movement is 'getting bigger and louder'
- Greta Thunberg arrived in Madrid early Friday after taking a 10-hour train from Portuguese capital Lisbon
- She was driven away from the station in an electric car before going to the UN climate conference in the city
- Greta and a group of teens marched into the lobby, sang protest anthems and staged a sit-in demonstration
- It comes after she spent three weeks sailing to Europe from the US because she refuses to use air travel
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg sported her infamous 'Trump death stare' today as she joined protesters in Madrid following a UN climate summit where she told world leaders her movement is 'getting bigger and louder'.
The 16-year-old activist was pictured with other young people clutching her famed 'school strike for climate' banner in the Spanish capital this evening as she demanded further action.
Ms Thunberg arrived in the city's main railway station from Portugal this morning, following a three-week sailing trip across the Atlantic, because she has sworn off flying due to the threat it poses for the environment.
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere exceeded the average yearly increase of the last decade and hit a new record in 2018, a report published at the end of last month revealed, as countries continued to fail to hit their emissions reduction targets.
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
The 16-year-old climate change activist joined others in the Spanish capital to call on world leaders to take action to lower greenhouse gas emissions
Ms Thunberg pictured arriving at the protest march as the COP25 summit is held in Madrid, Spain. She is holding her banner
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 today 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
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
Speaking to the conference, she said: 'We are getting bigger and bigger and our voices are being heard more and more, but of course that does not translate into political action.'
'We don't want to continue. We would love some action from people in power,' she said. 'People are suffering and dying from the climate and ecological emergency today and we cannot wait any longer.'
Thunberg said she hoped the two-week annual round of climate negotiations, which opened in Madrid on Monday, would lead to 'concrete action' and that world leaders would grasp the urgency of the climate crisis.
'Of course there is no victory, because the only thing we want to see is real action,' Thunberg said. 'So we have achieved a lot, but if you look at it from a certain point of view we have achieved nothing.'
The teenage activist, who sparked a global youth-led protest movement after striking outside the Swedish parliament last year, said that asking children to skip school to protest inaction by governments on climate change was 'not a sustainable solution'.
After making it through a swarm of media cameras and microphones at the Spanish capital's northern train station earlier, the Swedish teen posted an ironic tweet saying that she had 'successfully managed to sneak into Madrid.'
'I don't think anyone saw me...,' she added. 'Anyway it's great to be in Spain!'
She added: 'We don't want to continue. We would love some action from people in power'
Thunberg said she hoped the two-week annual round of climate negotiations, which opened in Madrid on Monday, would lead to 'concrete action' and that world leaders would grasp the urgency of the climate crisis
After making it through a swarm of media cameras and microphones at the Spanish capital's northern train station earlier, the Swedish teen posted an ironic tweet saying that she had 'successfully managed to sneak into Madrid'
The 16-year-old activist spent 10 hours travelling to the Spanish capital via train from Lisbon - shunning air travel because of the environmental impact
It comes after Greta spent three weeks sailing to Portugal from the US when the location of the conference was changed from Chile to Madrid at the last minute
The teenage activist was mobbed by media as she arrived at the station before being led out under police guard
Greta has become a figurehead of global protests over climate after she began leaving school each Friday to protest outside parliament in Stockholm
Greta plans to march outside the COP25 conference, where leaders from 200 countries are meeting to discuss action on climate change
The Spanish capital is hosting two-week, United Nations-sponsored talks aimed at streamlining the rules on global carbon markets and agreeing on how poor countries should be compensated for destruction largely caused by emissions from rich nations.
Later today, Thunberg paid a surprise visit to the venue of the talks and joined a group of some 40 teens staging a sit-in there to demand real action against climate change.
Holding hands, the teens sang 'power for the people,' and displayed banners with the logo of Fridays for Future, the global climate movement inspired by Thunberg.
The talks come as scientific evidence mounts about disasters that could ensue from further global warming, including a study commissioned by 14 seafaring nations due to be published Friday that predicts that unchecked climate change could devastate fishery industries and coral reef tourism.
That could cause hundreds of billions of dollars in losses by 2050, says the report, adding that limiting global warming would lessen the economic impact for coastal countries, but that they also need to adapt to ocean changes.
The presence in Madrid of Thunberg is expected to shift the attention to demands for greater action by non-governmental organizations and a whole new generation of environment-minded activists.
Past appearances by the 16-year-old have won her plaudits from some leaders - and criticism from others who've taken offense at the angry tone of her speeches.
After being driven away from the station in an electric car, Greta made a surprise visit to the centre where the conference is being held and staged a sit-in protest along with other teenagers
Leaders from 200 countries have gathered for the COP25 conference in Madrid to discuss action on climate change, which is due to last until the end of next week
Greta Thunberg is escorted by United Nations security officers as she arrives to attend the fifth day of the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 in Madrid
The teens sang protest anthem 'power for the people' and displayed banners with the logo of Fridays for Future, the global climate movement inspired by Thunberg
Greta's weekly protests for action on climate change outside Stockholm's parliament have since spread across the globe, and she has become a figurehead of the movement
Greta speaks to other climate activists as she stages a sit-in protest at the conference centre in Madrid where world leaders are meeting to discuss climate issues
An advocate for carbon-free transportation, Thunberg traveled by train overnight from the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, where she arrived earlier this week after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the United States by catamaran.
Greta arrived in Portugal on Tuesday, having hitched a ride on an Australian family's catamaran and sailed for three weeks across the Atlantic.
The trip was undertaken at short notice because the conference was due to take place in Chile, but the location was changed due to unrest there.
It marks the second trans-Atlantic voyage for Greta in four months, after she sailed from Europe to New York to attend the climate conference there in September.
For her latest voyage, she and her father Svante more than 3,000 miles from Hampton, Virginia to Lisbon aboard a 48-foot catamaran, the La Vagabonde.
They began their journey on November 13 and landed on December 3.
Climate change activist Greta Thunberg arrives aboard the yacht La Vagabonde at Santo Amaro port in Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday
The teenager and her father Svante had travelled more than 3,000 miles from Hampton, Virginia to Lisbon aboard 48-foot catamaran, the La Vagabonde
Posting on Instagram as she headed into the coastal capital, Greta shared a photograph of herself aboard the vessel and wrote: 'Heading into Lisbon!!'
The activist will spend the day holding meetings with Portuguese climate activists and resting before her she departs for Spain.
The night before her Wednesday arrival, Greta posted a snap of the vessel in rough seas, writing: 'Our last day on the ocean! We can now almost smell land! We expect to arrive at Doca de Santo Amaro, Lisbon sometime between 8.00-10.00 tomorrow morning.'
Portugal's environment minister Matos Fernandes thanked Greta for her activism in a letter last Thursday, having already departed for COP25.
Greta (right), who became world famous for founding the 'school strikes for the climate' movement, refuses to fly in planes because of the carbon footprint
Greta began her journey on November 13 in order to attend the COP25 summit in Madrid and save approximately two or three tons of carbon dioxide emissions
The activist will spend the day holding meetings with Portuguese climate activists and resting before her she departs for Spain
The night before her Wednesday arrival, Greta posted a photograph of the vessel in rough seas, writing: 'Our last day on the ocean!'
Greta had travelled more than 3,000 miles aboard the yacht from Virginia to Portugal
Pictured: Greta and her father Svante Thunberg, 50, arrive at Santo Amaro port in Lisbon
Posting on Instagram as she headed into the coastal capital, Greta shared a photograph of herself aboard the vessel and wrote: 'Heading into Lisbon!!'
The country's president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said it was a 'great pleasure' to have her in Lisbon but did not feel it was his place to personally greet the activist.
Greta missed last Friday's climate strikes as heavy winds delayed her arrival to Lisbon, but she is due to join thousands of activists marching in Madrid this week on the fringes of the COP25.
The two-week gathering kicked off on Monday with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warning that the planet had reached a 'point of no return'.
Top priorities include establishing a common time frame for countries to implement their national climate commitment plans, and resolving the issue of international carbon markets - the only aspect of the Paris rule book which delegates failed to agree on at last year's COP24 in Poland.
Most watched News videos
- Terrifying moment driver overtakes van and narrowly avoids crash
- Police surround Kennington tube station after reports of stabbing
- Starmer and Rayner embrace as they launch election campaign
- Three men seen running out of Beckenham station after knife attack
- 'Satan took over me': Hamas terrorist confesses of raping woman
- Heartless criminals steal van terminally ill boy uses
- Camilla hands out gifts at Royal Maundy ceremony on behalf of King
- Tourist is filmed napping in his tent on the beach with a crocodile
- Hilarious moment King's Guard shout 'make way' at pigeons in London
- Russian plane spiralling out of control crashes in sea in Crimea
- Sally Nugent hilariously finds out 'hedgehog' is a hat bobble
- Queen Camilla greets children after traditional Maundy service
Please, enough of this child already.
by Shortlegs 10857