Greta Thunberg is named TIME's 'Person Of The Year'

Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg has been named Time's 'Person of the Year'.

At the age of just 16, Thunberg has received the prestigious award after capturing the world's attention at the UN climate change summit where she pleaded with world leaders to take action on the crisis. In addition to this, she founded an international movement which saw young people around the world strike for the sake of protecting the planet for future generations.

In the video below, Thunberg slams world leaders for failing to tackle the climate change crisis: 

Editor-in-chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal said: "For sounding the alarm about humanity's predatory relationship with the only home we have, for bringing to a fragmented world a voice that transcends backgrounds and borders, for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads, Greta Thunberg is TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year."

Greta's global strike campaign began in August 2018 when she refused to attend school and sat outside the Swedish parliament instead.

But Thunberg has not been without her critics and her mural was graffitied by vandals: 

The magazine added: "In the 16 months since, she has addressed heads of state at the U.N., met with the Pope, sparred with the President of the United States and inspired 4 million people to join the global climate strike on September 20, 2019, in what was the largest climate demonstration in human history."

The news comes as the 16-year-old takes yet another swipe at world leaders for "misleading the public" with discussions unlikely to result in any tangible change at the COP25 talks in Madrid today and "not behaving as if we are in an emergency", as per the Metro.

Credit: 2428

Thunberg said that at "even at 1C people are dying from the climate crisis" and if the rise in temperature goes to 1.5C, the damage caused could be completely irreparable.

She added: "Finding holistic solutions is what the COP should be all about, but instead it seems to have turned some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes and to avoid raising their ambition.

"Countries are finding clever ways around having to take real action, like double-counting emissions reductions, and moving emissions overseas, and walking back on their promises to increase ambitions, or refusing to pay for solutions or loss and damage.

"This has to stop."