On Sunday night in the UK, Prince Harry attended the OnSide Awards, giving a speech to over 2,500 young people, in which he praised Swedish teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg.
“When Greta started her climate change protest she was just 15 years old—one voice, with just one placard, sitting on her own outside the Swedish parliament,” the Duke of Sussex said. “Many people… actually, I should say, many adults… dismissed her. Yet today, millions upon millions of young people have joined her fight.”
“She may have been just one person at the beginning, but she had a belief, a mission, and a desire to do something not just for herself but for everyone, and now—the whole world is paying attention,” the royal continued.
He added: “Whatever your dream—every country, every community, every school, every friendship group, every family needs their own Greta—someone who can lead the way, someone who is prepared to stand up for what they believe in, and show how much they care for the people in their lives and the community around them.”
Greta has been instumental in mobilising people around the world to march against climate change and emploring governments to do more to save the planet. In September, she gave an emotional speech at the United Nations General Assembly asking world leaders to make change.
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here,” she said. “I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you have come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, and yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing.”
