Greta Thunberg nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for second year running

Climate activist Greta Thunberg attends a protest ahead of the UN Climate Conference, in London
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Rebecca Speare-Cole3 February 2020

Greta Thunberg has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the second year running.

Two Swedish politicians Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling put the environmental activist forward for the 2020 award after three Norwegian politicians nominated her last year.

On Monday, the pair said Ms Thunberg “has worked hard to make politicians open their eyes to the climate crisis”.

"Action for reducing our emissions and complying with the Paris Agreement is therefore also an act of making peace," they added.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg poses for media as she arrives for a news conference in Davos, Switzerland
AP

The teenager spoke to world leaders at the World Economic Forum in January where she blasted US President Donald Trump, who withdrew from the Paris climate deal in 2017.

She called out his "inaction" in tackling the climate crisis and said his lack of urgency is “fuelling the flames” last month.

The 2015 landmark Paris Agreement asks both rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns.

It requires governments to present national plans to reduce emissions to limit global temperature rise to well below 2C.

Ms Thunberg has also encouraged students to skip school to join protests demanding faster action on climate change, a movement that has spread beyond Sweden to other European nations and around the world.

She founded the Fridays for Future movement that has inspired similar actions by other young people.

Any national lawmaker can nominate somebody for the Nobel Peace Prize, and three members of the Norwegian Parliament nominated Ms Thunberg last year.

That prize was won by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for bringing to an end two decades of bloody conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.

In 2019, Ms Thunberg was among four people named as the winners of a Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "Alternative Nobel" and she was named Time magazine's "Person of the Year."

The Norwegian Nobel Committee doesn't publicly comment on nominations, which for 2020 had to be submitted by February 1.

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