UN to welcome teen climate activist with 17 sailing ships

Teenage Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who refuses to travel by air to avoid excessive polluting emissions, is set to arrive in New York on Wednesday in a sailing yacht that departed from the UK 10 days ago and will be welcomed by the UN with a fleet of sailing boats.

The UN is scheduled to receive Thunberg with 17 sailboats, each of them representing one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. According to the organization, the vessels have been provided by UN partners.

The 16-year-old Thunberg, who has taken a sabbatical year from school, is being accompanied - among others - by her father Svante and by the youngest son of Caroline, Princess of Hanover, Pierre Casiraghi.

After crossing the Atlantic, the expedition will arrive in the US ahead of her participation in the UN climate summit at the end of September, Efe news reported.

The young activist began her sailing journey in the port of Plymouth, southwest England. Her itinerary will also take her to Canada, Mexico and finally Chile, where she plans to attend another conference on the climate emergency in December.

The young Swede plans to travel only by using public trains and buses from one end of the American continent to the other.

The yacht in which Thunberg set sail is equipped with solar panels and underwater turbines that allow the use of electricity onboard without emitting any carbon dioxide.