Thunberg was met by a flotilla of 17 sailboats, each displaying one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals on its sail.
ADVERTISEMENTGreta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, sailed into New York Harbour yesterday on the solar-powered, zero-emission boat on which she hitched a ride across the Atlantic. She was accompanied on the final leg of her 14-day journey by a fleet of 17 sailboats representing each of the Sustainable Development Goals on their sails.
Thunberg is in New York to participate in the Youth Climate Summit and the Climate Action Summit at the United Nations Headquarters next month.
The Sustainable Development Goals are a call to action for governments, business and civil society to work together to build a better future for everyone – to end poverty, fight inequality and tackle the climate crisis.
Speaking to the press after her arrival in New York City, Thunberg said: "The climate and ecological crisis is a global crisis and the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced and if we don’t manage to work together to co-operate and to work together despite our differences then we will fail.
"So we need to stand together and support each other and to take action because otherwise it might be too late. Let’s not wait any longer, let’s do it now.”
World leaders will gather for the United Nations summits and high-level meetings in September to boost action on climate change and accelerate progress on sustainable development, aimed at kickstarting a decade of ambitious action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Thunberg said of the summits: “These have to be a tipping point and I think, I hope, it will be because it must. And I and many people with me are going to try to do everything we can to make sure that the world leaders have all eyes on them during these conferences so they cannot continue to ignore this.”