Gradually, the space could be short for all the trophies. Since Greta Thunberg started the Fridays for Future movement, she collects one award after another. On Wednesday, the 16-year-old was honored in The Hague with the Children's Peace Prize from "KidsRights", an international organization for children's rights. Patron is the South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Thunberg shares the award with 14-year-old Divina Maloum from Cameroon, who was honored for her dedication to children in her country. However, the Swedish activist, a symbol of the wave of protests against climate change, could not be present in person at the award ceremony. The German Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer accepted the award on behalf of her.
Sem van der Wal / AFP
Divina Maloum (r.) And Luisa Neubauer at the award ceremony in The Hague
Thunberg is currently sailing with a well-known YouTube family from the US across the Atlantic back to Europe. In early December, she wants to be in time for the next United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid. The catamaran with Thunberg on board is currently heading towards Azores.
Various prices and one million crowns
The Children's Peace Prize is part of a series of awards Greta Thunberg received in 2019: the French Prix Liberté, Amnesty International's "Ambassador of Conscience Award" and the Rachel Carson Prize, an international environmental prize.
The most famous and prestigious tribute to Thunberg is likely to be the Alternative Nobel Prize. This right-livelihood award, the official name, has been awarded every year since 1980 in Stockholm - on December 4, 2019, for the 40th time. In addition to the climate activist, fighters for women's rights and minorities will be honored. The prize money is one million Swedish kroner, the equivalent of 94,000 euros.
Even the golden camera
At the end of March, Greta Thunberg received an award in Berlin at the end of March: the Golden Camera, a trophy for film and television producers. Thunberg got a special prize for climate protection here - and used her appearance at the award ceremony for a flaming appeal to save the global climate: "We are now at a crossroads in our history," she said. She got standing ovations from the spectators in the hall.
Greta Thunberg sees the other awards quite critically, as she made clear at the end of October. She had been awarded the environmental prize of the Nordic Council - and rejected it immediately.
She thanked the Nordic Council for the award, which was a great honor, wrote Thunberg on Instagram. However, the climate movement does not need any further prizes, but politicians who listen to the findings of science. The price would have been endowed with 350,000 Danish kroner (around 47,000 euros).
Even for the Nobel Peace Prize Thunberg had been acted as a possible candidate. But she did not receive it.
