Sailing team to fly 2 crew to US to bring Greta Thunberg boat back

The Team Malizia yacht is pictured, that will sail Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg across the Atlantic for the UN Climate Action Conference, with the team’s Pierre Casiraghi and Boris Herrmann, in this recent undated photo released August 14, 2019. (Team Malizia/Handout via Reuters) 

The sailing team that’s taking climate activist Greta Thunberg from England to the United States aboard a high-tech racing yacht says it will fly two crew across the Atlantic to bring the boat back, but that the carbon emissions from their flights will be compensated for.

A spokeswoman for Team Malizia said it’ll be necessary to fly the crew to the US because the high-profile trip with the 16-year-old Swedish campaigner that left Plymouth on Wednesday was arranged at very short notice.

Holly Cova told The Associated Press by email Friday that “we only have one boat, so they cannot easily sail over to meet them.”

Cova said the team recognizes it’s “an imperfect solution” but believes offsetting the emissions by funding carbon-reducing projects elsewhere “is better than doing nothing.”