Sweden's 16-year-old iconic global climate change activist Greta Thunberg won the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "alternative Nobel Prize."
She shared the award with Western Sahara human rights defender Aminatou Haidar, Chinese lawyer Guo Jianmei, Brazil's Yanomami indigenous people's leader Davi Kopenawa, and the Hutukara Yanomami Association.
Each laureate will receive 1 million Swedish Krona, or $102,911.
Announcing the winners during a press conference at the International Press Center at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs Wednesday, Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director of the Right Livelihood Foundation, said: "With the 2019 Right Livelihood Award, we honor four practical visionaries whose leadership has empowered millions of people to defend their inalienable rights and to strive for a livable future for all on planet Earth'.
Besides the prize money, the Swedish human rights organization offered the award-winners long-term support and help to protect "those whose lives and liberty are in danger."
The jury said Greta Thunberg was chosen for the coveted prize "for inspiring and amplifying political demands for urgent climate action reflecting scientific facts."
"Thunberg is the powerful voice of a young generation that will have to bear the consequences of today's political failure to stop climate change. Her resolve to not put up with the looming climate disaster has inspired millions of peers to also raise their voices and demand immediate climate action", it added.
Thunberg said the Right Livelihood Award is a huge recognition for Fridays For Future and the Climate Strike movements.
Thunberg sparked a global youth climate action movement through her "Fridays for Future" school strikes in 2018. Inspired by Greta, American activist Alexandria Villaseñor co-founded the U.S. Youth Climate Strike. she conducted her own Friday climate protests outside the United Nations headquarters in New York.
On Monday, A group of 16 young climate change activists from different parts of the world, led by Thunberg, filed a legal complaint at the United Nations against five countries for their failure to fight global warming.
In a highly emotional speech that shook the conscience of the world at the beginning of the UN's Climate Action Summit on the same day, Thunberg criticized world leaders, telling them that they are failing in their fight against climate change.
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