Greta heading for US in eco-friendly yacht
filmmaker, her father Svante and Pierre Casiraghi, who is the grandson of Monaco’s late Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly.
The yacht is owned by Gerhard Senft, a property developer, and sponsored by the Yacht Club de Monaco, which said it was ‘‘honoured’’ to sail Thunberg ‘‘emission-free over the Atlantic’’.
Team Malizia told the BBC they had approached Thunberg with the offer and had no previous plan to sail the yacht across the Atlantic. They said they have not yet calculated the cost of the trip. The average return flight from Heathrow to JFK produces around 1.65 tonnes of CO2 per passenger, according to some carbon calculators.
But Thunberg says her voyage is not about ‘‘saying that people should stop flying ... I’m just saying it needs to be easier to be climate neutral’’.
Since making headlines with her school strikes in 2018, Thunberg has met with the business and political leaders of several countries and even Pope Francis, who encouraged her to continue campaigning.
The teenager plans to take a year off from school to keep raising awareness of climate change and pressuring world leaders to step up efforts to curb global warming. Aside from attending the UN Climate Action Summit hosted by Antonio Guterres, the UN secretarygeneral, on September 23, Thunberg plans to take part in several climate protests in New York.
Afterwards, she intends to travel by train and bus to the annual UN climate conference in December, held this year in Chile, with stops in Canada, Mexico and other countries along the way.
‘‘This past year, my life has turned upside down,’’ she said.
‘‘Every day is an adventure, basically. In a way, I am more optimistic, because people are slowly waking up and people are becoming more aware of the situation.’’
Although travelling by the wind and currents would be an obvious way to cut one’s carbon footprint, Malizia II has some special features.
It uses solar panels and underwater turbines to generate zero-carbon electricity. – Telegraph Group