Greta Thunberg and youth climate protests make a return

Teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg is back. She joined fellow demonstrators outside Swedish Parliament on Friday to kick off a day of socially distanced global climate protests.

“ main hope is, as always, to try to have an impact on level of awareness and public opinion so that people will start becoming more aware,” 17-year-old told reporters.

coronavirus outbreak has prevented Fridays for Future movement that Thunberg inspired from holding its mass rallies in recent months, lowering its public profile.

Thunberg started her solo protests outside Sweden’s parliament in Stockholm on Aug. 20, 2018. Students around world soon began following her le, staging regular large protests, and she was invited to speak to political and business leers at U.N. conferences and annual World Ecomic Forum in Davos.

Thunberg’s blunt words to presidents and prime ministers, peppered with scientific facts about need to urgently cut greenhouse gas emissions, have won her praise and awards, but also occasional criticism and even death threats.

y demand that lawmakers stick to 2015 landmark Paris climate deal that asks both rich and poor countries to take action to curb rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns. It requires governments to present national plans to reduce emissions in order to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Climate protests are also planned elsewhere on Friday.