Carbon friendly transport derailed: Greta Thunberg stranded after climate summit switches venues

Greta Thunberg’s carbon-friendly transport plan has derailed after a climate summit venue change.

Climate change activist Greta Thunberg sets sail for New York in the Malizia II yacht from Mayflower Marina, on August 14, 2019 in Plymouth, England. Picture: Kirsty Wigglesworth/Getty

In the centuries before powered flight, getting from California to Madrid was an arduous business, necessitating a long yomp over the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains, and then a turbulent sea voyage across the Atlantic.

Greta Thunberg has 28 days.

The teenage climate activist and pioneer of “flight shame” has appealed for help to travel from Los Angeles to a UN climate summit in Spain without releasing so much as a wisp of unnecessary carbon dioxide.

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In perhaps the sternest test of her convictions yet, she must complete the journey of at least 9655 kilometres by rail, sail or electric car before December 2.

It will be a close-run race against time.

Three months ago Miss Thunberg, 16, sailed from Plymouth to New York on a carbon-neutral racing yacht for the beginning of a tour of the Americas to underline the urgency of global warming.

Since then she has posed for a photograph with Arnold Schwarzenegger, given her name to a new species of beetle and scowled fixedly at the back of President Trump’s head.

Plans derailed

A speech at the Santiago Climate Change Conference in Chile was supposed to be the crowning glory of the trip, although her spokesman said that she had not yet worked out how she would get there.

Greta Thunberg stares down US President Donald Trump as he enters the United Nations on September 23, 2019. Picture: Supplied

Her plans were derailed on Friday, however, when rioting against the Chilean government forced the UN to move the meeting to Madrid.

Without further ado, Ms Thunberg tore up the South American leg of her itinerary. “I’ll need some help,” she tweeted. “It turns out I’ve travelled half around the world, the wrong way. Now I need to find a way to cross the Atlantic in November. If anyone could help me find transport I would be so grateful.”

If she intends to stick to her guns and avoid flying, the maritime route will be far from straightforward. Her journey from Plymouth to New York took 15 days and the yacht she used, the Malizia II, has returned to Europe.

The first part will be easy enough. It should not take her much more than three or four days to reach the eastern seaboard of the US in an electric car such as the one Schwarzenegger lent her for her travels around California.

The Malizia II yacht, which got Greta Thunberg to the US, isn’t an option, because it has returned to Europe. Picture: Finnbarr Webster/Getty

Passage across the Atlantic also tends to be easier in an easterly direction because of the prevailing trade winds. The hard part will be finding a boat and crew prepared to undertake such a long voyage at short notice.

Budget airline’s carbon-neutral offer

Within hours Teresa Ribera, the acting Spanish ecology minister, offered support: “You’ve made a long journey and help all of us to raise concern, open minds and enhance action. We would love to help you to cross the Atlantic.”

Less welcome was the intervention from Eurowings. Like the Devil tempting Christ in the desert with dominion over the world, the German budget airline dangled the prospect of a “carbon-neutral” flight back to Europe, with the emissions offset through climate protection projects.

“Unfortunately,” one disgruntled customer responded, “Greta [would] miss the conference due to delays, flight cancellations or breakdowns.”

At the weekend the Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio published a picture of himself with Miss Thunberg and hailed her as a “leader of our time”.

“I hope that Greta’s message is a wake-up call to world leaders everywhere that the time for inaction is over,” said DiCaprio, 44, who once made an 8,000-mile round trip in a private jet from Paris to New York to accept an environmentalism award. “She and I have made a commitment to support one another, in hopes of securing a brighter future for our planet.”

The Times