Experts are cautious, but bookies have tipped teenage climate campaigner Greta Thunberg for the Nobel Peace Prize next week.
Odds from bookmakers such as Ladbrokes suggest the 16-year-old activist is the one to beat for the Nobel Peace Prize, just a week after she launched a furious tirade at international delegates during a UN climate summit.
The teenager provoked controversy with her angry speech at the UN and was dragged into a Twitter feud with US President Donald Trump.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also criticised her yesterday for what he said was a failure to understand the complex modern world.
During her presentation, she roared ferociously at delegates:
'How dare you?! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing,' she added.
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'And if you choose to fail us, I say, we will never forgive you.'
The 16-year-old also broke down in tears of rage during her verbal onslaught.
She is tipped for the Nobel Peace Prize after launching a school strike that inspired millions to join her 'Fridays for Future' movement.
However the prediction carries a great deal of uncertainty, since the list of candidates considered by the Nobel Committee isn't made public.
Experts are still divided over whether there is a direct link between climate and violent conflicts.
Thunberg won Amnesty International's highest honour earlier this month and bookies reckon this will follow through bagging her the highest acclaim for a peace keeping.
The 16-year-old has mobilised millions of youths since starting her 'School Strike for the Climate' alone outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018.
'What she has done over the past year is extraordinary,' said Dan Smith, the director of Stockholm international peace research institute SIPRI.
'Climate change is an issue which is strongly related to security and peace.'
However, his counterpart at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, Henrik Urdal, said he didn't think she would win.
'Extremely unlikely,' he said, noting her young age and the fact that a link between climate change and armed conflict remains unproven.
In a sarcastic tweet soon after the teenager's speech, US President Donald Trump mocked the schoolgirl, saying: 'She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!'
Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin chimed in, calling her a 'poorly informed teenager' who was being used by adults.
Putin said the 16-year-old should 'tell developing counties why they should live in poverty' over her campaign to cut fossil fuel use.
Putin told the energy conference, adding it was deplorable that Thunberg was being used by some groups - which he did not name - to achieve their own goals.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
