Greta Thunberg receives Normandy’s Freedom Prize, donates prize money to climate groups

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teen who inspired a massive youth movement to combat climate change, on Sunday received the first Freedom Prize awarded by France’s Normandy region.

“I think the least we can do to honor them is to stop destroying that same world that Charles, Leon and their friends and colleagues fought so hard to save,” Thunberg said, referring to D-Day veterans Charles Norman Shay and Léon Gautier, according to The Associated Press.

{mosads}The 16-year-old warned that “we are currently on track for a world that could displace billions of people from their homes, taking away even the most basic living conditions … making areas of the world uninhabitable for parts of the year.”

“We can still fix this,” she reportedly added.

Thunberg said that she will donate the prize money from the award, 25,000 euros, to four groups working for climate justice. 

Climate activist Greta Thunberg, the first recipient of the Freedom Prize, donates her prize money of 25,000 euros to four organizations working for climate justice pic.twitter.com/Xt8IqrRjaz

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 22, 2019

Thunberg, the founder of Youth Strike for Climate, began advocating for climate change policy last year by walking out of school to protest weekly outside the Swedish Parliament.

She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year and is releasing a book later this year, of which all proceeds will go to charity.