Greta Thunberg has been named TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year

Greta Thunberg has been named TIME's 2019 Person of the Year.

The news was announced on Wednesday afternoon. The 16-year-old was recognised for encouraging young people to fight climate change - including inspiring 4 million people to join the global climate strike on September 20; the largest climate demonstration in history. “We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow. That is all we are saying,” the teenager told the publication.

.@GretaThunberg is TIME's 2019 Person of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/YZ7U6Up76v pic.twitter.com/SWALBfeGl6

— TIME (@TIME) December 11, 2019

"Just over a year ago, a quiet and mostly friendless teenager woke up, put on her blue hoodie, and sat by herself for hours in an act of singular defiance," the publication said about Greta as they confirmed the news. "Fourteen months later, she had become the voice of millions, a symbol of a rising global rebellion. The politics of climate action are as entrenched and complex as the phenomenon itself, and @gretathunberg has no magic solution. "But she has succeeded in creating a global attitudinal shift, transforming millions of vague, middle-of-the-night anxieties into a worldwide movement calling for urgent change. @gretathunberg is TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year." Other people shortlisted for Time's Person of the Year 2019 include the Hong Kong Protestors, the CIA Whistleblower and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.