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Greta Thunberg's rise from youth activist to global climate leader

By on November 6, 2023

By Beatrice Tridimas, Axelle Rescourio

Updated: October 18, 2023

What’s the context?

Climate campaigner Thunberg has been charged with a public order offence after she was detained outside an oil conference in London

  • Greta Thunberg charged with public order offence in London
  • The charge follows her detention outside an oil conference
  • Thunberg fined twice for disobeying Swedish police orders

LONDON – Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg was charged with a public order offence by London police on Wednesday after she and others were detained at a protest outside an oil and gas conference being held at a luxury hotel the previous day.

Thunberg, 20, was charged with failing to comply with conditions that police said had been imposed to prevent “serious disruption to the community, hotel and guests.” She has been released on bail and is due in court on Nov. 15.

Twenty-five other individuals were also charged in relation to Tuesday’s protest, police said.

Thunberg joined hundreds of activists to protest outside the InterContinental Hotel in Mayfair where the Energy Intelligence Forum was hosting a gathering of oil and gas industry leaders on Tuesday. The demonstrators locked their arms to block the entrance to the hotel, preventing two delegates from entering.

Thunberg, who rose to fame in 2018 when she organised school walkouts to protest inaction on climate change, has been detained by police or removed from protests in Sweden, Norway and Germany this year, and she has twice been found guilty of disobeying police orders.

Earlier this month, Thunberg was fined 4,500 Swedish crowns ($414) for failing to leave a protest in July when police ordered her to do so. It was the second time she had been fined for the same offence.

On July 24, Thunberg and other activists from the environmental group Reclaim the Future blocked the road as oil trucks tried to drive to Malmo harbour and were forcibly removed by police, only hours after she was convicted and fined for a similar action in June.

Here’s a timeline of Thunberg’s rise from solo climate striker to leading global campaigner:

Week 258. The UK gov & Norwegian state-owned oil giant @Equinor want to build the massive Rosebank oil field. It would produce more CO2 than the 28 lowest income countries do in a year, burning us past climate targets and do nothing to lower energy bills.#StopRosebank @stopcambo pic.twitter.com/seH7jd3CQ6
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) July 28, 2023

August 20, 2018: Swedish student Thunberg, aged 15, skips school to protest outside parliament for more action against climate change.

August 26, 2018: She is joined by fellow students, teachers and parents at another protest and begins attracting media attention for her climate campaign.

September 2018: Thunberg begins a regular ‘strike’ from classes every Friday to protest climate issues. She invites other students to join her weekly “Fridays for Future” campaign by staging walkouts at their own schools.

November 2018: More than 17,000 students in 24 countries take part in Friday school strikes. Thunberg begins speaking at high-profile events across Europe, including U.N. climate talks in Poland.

March 2019: Thunberg is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. The number of students taking part in school strikes hits more than 2 million people across 135 countries.

May 2019: Thunberg is named one of the world’s most influential people by Time magazine, appearing on its cover. “Now I am speaking to the whole world,” she wrote on Twitter.

August 1, 2019: Thunberg hits back at “hate and conspiracy campaigns” after attacks by some right-wing lawmakers and commentators who questioned her credibility and described her as a “Nobel prize of fear”.

August 2019: Thunberg, who refuses to fly, sails from Britain to the United States in a zero-emissions boat to take part in a U.N. climate summit. Meanwhile, the number of climate strikers reaches 3.6 million people across 169 countries.

September 23, 2019: Thunberg delivers a blistering speech to leaders at the U.N. summit, accusing them of having “stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words“.

September 25, 2019: Thunberg is named as one of four winners of the 2019 Right Livelihood Award, known as Sweden’s alternative Nobel Prize.

October 11, 2019: Despite being bookies’ favourite to win, Thunberg misses out of the Nobel Peace Prize which goes to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

November 2019: Caught out by a last-minute switch of location for U.N. climate talks from Chile to Spain, Thunberg hitches a ride on a catamaran boat crossing back to Europe.

December 11, 2019: Thunberg denounces “clever accounting and creative PR” to mask a lack of real action on climate change in a speech at the U.N. COP25 summit as the 16-year-old became the youngest individual to be Time Magazine’s person of the year.

March 13, 2020: As governments limit or ban mass gatherings to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, Thunberg urges students to make week 82 of the school strike digital, with the hashtag #ClimateStrikeOnline.

March 24, 2020: Thunberg says the swift measures brought in to stem the coronavirus pandemic show that the world can also take the rapid action needed to curb climate change. She also says on social media that she may have caught COVID-19.

April 30, 2020: Thunberg donates a $100,000 award she received to UNICEF to buy soap, masks and gloves to protect children from the coronavirus pandemic.

July 20, 2020: Thunberg wins the first Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity and donates the 1 million euro prize money to charitable organisations.

January 31, 2021: Thunberg is again nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, the World Health Organization.

April 9, 2021: The activist says she will not attend COP26 in Glasgow, due to run Nov. 1-12, because of concerns over vaccine inequality – but later changes her mind after the UK government offers to vaccinate all participants against COVID-19.

April 19, 2021: Thunberg says her foundation will give 100,000 euros ($120,000) to the WHO Foundation to support the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme.

November 2, 2021: Protesting outside the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, Thunberg says world leaders have “led us nowhere” and it is up to civil activists to bring about change.

“Change won’t come from these conferences like #COP26 unless there is big public pressure from the outside,” she tweeted.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks on the Pyramid stage at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival in Britain, June 25, 2022. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
Climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks on the Pyramid stage at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival in Britain, June 25, 2022. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

June 25, 2022: Festival-goers welcome Thunberg on stage at Britain’s Glastonbury festival, during a surprise appearance where she criticizes world leaders and tells the crowd they have the power to act now.

September 6, 2022: In the run-up to Sweden’s election on September 11, Thunberg accuses politicians of ignoring the climate crisis during their campaigns and treating it as if it were simply a problem rather than a life-or-death threat.

October 20, 2022: Thunberg tweets a petition calling for Egypt to release political prisoners ahead of the November COP27 summit. Thunberg has said she will not attend the conference in Egypt, saying that representatives from areas most affected by climate change are better spokespeople.

October 27, 2022: Thunberg publishes The Climate Book, which includes essays from more than 100 experts, including scientists, activists and indigenous leaders. Thunberg said proceeds from the book will go to charity.

October 30, 2022: A week before the U.N. COP27 climate summit, Thunberg says it is an opportunity for “greenwashing, lying and cheating” and she will not attend the conference.

November 25, 2022: A group of 600 young people, including Thunberg, file a lawsuit against Sweden for failing to take adequate steps to combat climate change.

December 29, 2022: Internet influencer Andrew Tate is arrested by Romanian police shortly after a viral Twitter spat with Thunberg. Social media users speculate his posts helped reveal his location – though police said they were unrelated.

January 13, 2023: Thunberg joins demonstrators in Germany to protest against the expansion of a lignite coal mine.

January 18, 2023: Thunberg says climate protest is not a crime after she was briefly detained for joining a demo opposing the demolition of a German village to make way for a coal mine.

February 27, 2023: Thunberg joins hundreds of protesters blocking the entrances to government buildings in Oslo, to oppose the use of Indigenous land for wind turbines.

Greta Thunberg is carried away by police officers as activits demonstrate outside the Ministry of Finance entrance and several other ministries in protest against the Fosen wind turbines not being demolished, which was built on land traditionally used by indigenous Sami reindeer herders, in Oslo, Norway, March 1, 2023. Alf Simensen/NTB/via REUTERS

March 1, 2023: Thunberg is detained twice during a demonstration outside Norwegian government buildings.

June 9, 2023: Thunberg graduates from school and says she is taking part in her last school strike for climate although she will continue to hold weekly protests.

July 24, 2023: Thunberg is convicted and fined for disobeying a police order to leave a protest in June – but is back at another protest hours later before being removed by the police.

July 28, 2023: Thunberg joins climate activists urging the UK government to ditch its planned Rosebank oil field project.

September 23, 2023: Thunberg celebrates five years of Fridays for Future protests.

October 11, 2023: Thunberg is fined for a second time for disobeying police orders after failing to leave a protest on July 24.

October 17, 2023: Dozens of protesters, including Thunberg, are detained for obstructing the entrance to the Energy Intelligence Forum — an oil and gas conference — at the InterContinental hotel in Mayfair, central London.

October 18, 2023: British police charge Thunberg with a public order offence for failing to comply with conditions that police said had been imposed to prevent “serious disruption to the community, hotel and guests.”

($1 = 10.4088 Swedish crowns)

This article was updated on October 19, 2023 at 14:11 GMT to include Thunberg’s detention in London and subsequent charge, and second conviction for disobeying police at a Swedish climate protest.

(Reporting by Axelle Rescourio and Beatrice Tridimas; Editing by Sonia Elks and Helen Popper)

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(Feature Slider Image – Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg is detained during an Oily Money Out and Fossil Free London protest in London, Britain, October 17, 2023. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne)

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