Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

A trio of Norwegian lawmakers has nominated teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg, who has grown to become a prominent voice in anti-climate change campaigns, for the Nobel Peace Prize.

At age 15, she inadvertently kickstarted a global movement by skipping school and sitting outside the Swedish parliament in protest of inaction towards tackling climate change .

Now, a year since then, Thunberg has encouraged many students to skip school to join protests demanding faster action on climate change in a movement that has spread far beyond just Sweden and Europe.

Freddy Andre Oevstegaard and two other members of the Socialist Left Party in Norway said they believe “the massive movement Greta has set in motion is a very important peace contribution,” according to the Associated Press. Oevstegaard told the local VG news that “climate threats are perhaps one of the most important contributions to war and conflict.”

It isn’t just schoolgoing kids that are taking Thunberg seriously. Since the first climate strike she started, she has been invited to the UN and the World Economic Forum in Davos as a speaker. Greta is also a TED speaker, with over 2,50,000 Twitter followers.

Fridays for future. The school strike continues! #climatestrike #klimatstrejk #FridaysForFuture pic.twitter.com/5jej011Qtp

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) September 16, 2018

The Nobel Committee doesn’t publicly comment on its nominations, which had to be submitted by 1 February for the 2019 prizes. But Thunberg is up against a lot of worthy contemporaries for the Prize.

“There are 301 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019, out of which 223 are individuals and 78 are organizations,” the Nobel Prize committee wrote on their website .

The process of selection takes months, and a decision on the chosen Nobel laureates will be made only in October this year.

With inputs from the Associated Press.