Greta Thunberg Donates Million Euro Prize

The 17-year-old founder of the School Strike for Climate movement has been awarded the inaugural Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity. And immediately announced that she would donate the one million euro prize money to environmental projects through her foundation.

This is the first year the Portuguese philanthropic Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation awarded the Prize for Humanity, which is specifically for people contributing to mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Thunberg's personal action, striking from school in Sweden  once a week, starting in 2018, has sparked a global movement. She has been twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and been invited to speak on many international stages, such as  the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,  the European Parliament and the United Nations.

Jorge Sampaio, Chair of the Grand Jury of the Prize,  explained the choice of the teenage activist, saying,  “The way Greta Thunberg has been able to mobilize younger generations for the cause of climate change and her tenacious struggle to alter a status quo that persists, makes her one of the most remarkable figures of our days”.

She thanked the jury for the prize, and announced, "We're in a climate emergency, and my foundation will as quickly as possible donate all the prize money of one million euros to support organisations and projects that are fighting for a sustainable world.defending nature and supporting people already facing the worst impacts of the climate and ecological crisis — particularly those living in the Global South. Starting with giving €100.000 to the SOS Amazonia campaign, led by Fridays For Future Brazil to tackle Covid-19 in the Amazon, and €100.000 to the Stop Ecocide Foundation to support their work to make ecocide an international crime.”