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MADRID (AP) — The Latest on the U.N. Climate Talks in Madrid (all times local):
3:10 p.m.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg says she feels “energized” after spending three weeks crossing the Atlantic in a catamaran.
The Swedish teen arrived Tuesday in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon on her way to the U.N. Climate Change Conference taking place in Madrid.
Thunberg told dozens of reporters and activists under bright sunshine on a Lisbon quayside she plans to keep pressing political leaders to make climate change their top priority.
She wants senior officials gathered in Madrid to “finally understand the urgency” of climate change and cooperate internationally.
Thunberg says: “People are underestimating the force of angry kids.”
She says she travelled by catamaran instead of plane to “send a message it is possible” to live a sustainable lifestyle.
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3 p.m.
Some 20 activists cut off traffic in central Madrid and staged a brief theatrical performance to protest climate change.
Members of the international group called Extinction Rebellion held up a banner in Russian that read: “Climate Crisis. To speak the truth. To take action immediately.”
The Tuesday morning protest coincided with the second day of the U.N. Climate Change Conference taking place in Madrid.
Some activists jumped into a nearby fountain while others threw them life jackets. They chanted: “What Do We Want? Climate Justice.”
Others dressed in red robes with their faces whitened to symbolize the human species’ peril danced briefly before police moved in to end the protest.
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10:20 a.m.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg has arrived by catamaran in the port of Lisbon after a three-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean from the United States.
The Swedish teen arrived in the port of the Portuguese capital on Tuesday and was sailing toward the quay, before heading to neighboring Spain to attend the U.N. Climate Change Conference taking place in Madrid.
Thunberg was to be met in Lisbon by local dignitaries and other activists.
Thunberg hitched a renewable-energy ride from the United States, joining an Australian family on their 48-foot (15-meter) yacht.
She wanted a low-carbon form of transport to get to the climate meeting, which was switched at short notice to Spain from Chile due to unrest there.
The yacht, named La Vagabonde, leaves little or no carbon footprint when its sails are up, using solar panels and hydro-generators for electricity.
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8:40 a.m.
The U.N. weather agency says that the current decade is likely to set a new 10-year temperature record, adding further evidence that the world is getting hotter.
The World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday that preliminary temperature data show the years from 2015 to 2019 and from 2010 to 2019 “are, respectively, almost certain to be the warmest five-year period and decade on record.”
In a report released on the sidelines of this year’s U.N. climate change conference in Madrid, the agency said this continues the trend that “since the 1980s, each successive decade has been warmer than the last.”
While full-year temperature measurements won’t be available for several more months, the agency also said that 2019 is expected to be the second or third warmest year on record.
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