France: Greta Thunberg awarded first Normandy Freedom Prize

*NO CUTAWAYS AT SOURCE*
M/S Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg being awarded the Normandy Freedom Prize, Caen
SOT, Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist: ''Yesterday I spent the day with the D-Day veteran Charles Norman Shay at Omaha Beach, it was a day I will never forget, not only because of the unimaginable bravery and sacrifices made by those who gave their lives to defend the freedom and democracy of the world but also because they managed to do the seemingly impossible possible. I think the least we can do to honour them is to stop destroying that same world that Charles, Leon and their friends and colleagues fought so hard to save for us, we owe it to them, we owe it to future generations and we owe it to ourselves."
SOT, Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist: ''According to WHO one in four of all
premature deaths world-wide are due to man-made pollution and environmental damage, and 7 million people die from illness related to toxic air pollution every year, this is a silent war going on.''
SOT, Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist: ''We can still fix this if we really want to, but one thing is for sure, we cannot do this without cooperation, democracy and above all freedom and liberty.''
SOT, Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist: ''And yet the link between climate and ecological emergency and mass migration, famine and war is still not clear to many people. This must change."
SOT, Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist: ''And I would like to tell young people that they should be prepared to defend what they believe in and how they want to live, it is their life and their country."
SOT, Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist: ''You want to make sure that the young people are also getting involved in protecting our freedom and that you hand over the responsibility from your generation to my generation. I think that is very beautiful.''
SOT, Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist: ''Different times of course mean different struggles and now we have different problems and I think the climate and ecological crisis is what young people really care about today, at least that is my experience. And so I, yes, I was very angry and sad because of everything that was happening and I just decided that I am going to do something about it so as you said I channelled that anger into action.''
SCRIPT
Swedish teenage climate activist and Nobel peace prize nominee Greta Thunberg was awarded the first Normandy Freedom Prize, sponsored by World War II veterans Charles Norman Shay and Leon Gautier, in the French city of Caen on Sunday.
''I think the least we can do to honour them is to stop destroying that same world that Charles, Leon and their friends and colleagues fought so hard to save for us, we owe it to them, we owe it to future generations and we owe it to ourselves," Thunberg referring to the experiences of WWII veterans.
The 'Fridays for Future' strike movement came to prominence through the then 15-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who conducted a solitary protest outside the Swedish parliament in 2018. Since then, Thunberg has galvanised tens of thousands of students across the world to walk out of school on Fridays to demand stronger action on climate change from their governments.