Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg and the global protest movement “Fridays for Future” were nominated Thursday for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize by two Swedish lawmakers.
“Greta Thunberg is a climate activist, and the main reason she deserves the Nobel Peace Prize is that despite her young age, she has worked hard to make politicians open their eyes to the climate crisis,” Left Party Parliamentarians Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling wrote in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
“The climate crisis will produce new conflicts and ultimately wars. Action for reducing our emissions and complying with the Paris Agreement is therefore also an act of making peace,” they said. The pair added that without the Fridays For Future movement and Ms. Thunberg, “the climate issue would not have been on the agenda to such an extent as it is today.”
The 17-year-old Swede was mentioned as a possible Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2019, when the honour ultimately went to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for his efforts to resolve a long-running conflict with neighbouring Eritrea. In just over a year, the climate activist, who suffers from a form of autism called Asperger’s, has become the voice of a generation haunted by the climate crisis.
She began her “School Strike for the Climate” outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018, and has since inspired and mobilised millions of young people to get involved.
Nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize must be submitted by February 1 to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Thousands of people are eligible to propose candidates, including former laureates, some university professors, lawmakers and government ministers around the world, and current and former Norwegian Nobel Committee members.
The committee never reveals the names of the nominees, but those who propose candidates are allowed to disclose their choice.
