23rd September, 2020
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday announced that a foundation she set up would donate 150,000 euros (175,000 dollars) to assist people affected by climate change in Africa.
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Oil Change International and Solar Sister would each receive 50,000 euros, the Greta Thunberg Foundation said.
According to the statement, Africa was “one of the most vulnerable regions for the impacts of the climate crisis, as heatwaves, droughts and floods intensify with rising global temperatures.”
The funds to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement were to support disaster relief work across Africa.
Solar Sister assists local women entrepreneurs in Tanzania and Nigeria to build clean, solar-powered businesses, while Oil Change International combats “harmful oil and gas projects across Africa,” the statement added.
“We are in a global emergency, which affects all of us.
“But everyone is not suffering its consequences equally.
“Africa is being disproportionately hit by the climate crisis, despite contributing to it among the least,” Thunberg said.
Thunberg, 17, t inspired the global movement to draw attention to climate change by skipping school on Fridays.
She staged her first school strike in August 2018.
The funds announced on Wednesday originate from the 1-million-euro prize for humanity, which the Portuguese Gulbenkian Foundation awarded to Thunberg in July.
At the time, Thunberg said the prize money would be donated to organizations and projects working to combat climate change and ecological degradation especially in the Global South, where people were most affected.
NAN