New York: Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in New York on Wednesday, local time, after completing a 14-day voyage across the Atlantic in a zero-carbon yacht.

Hundreds of cheering supporters gathered at a marina in lower Manhattan on a grey and drizzly afternoon to welcome the 16-year-old who has inspired schoolchildren around the world to go on strike to raise attention about climate change.

"This is a fight across borders and across continents," Thunberg said at a press conference after docking in Manhattan. "It is insane that a 16-year-old has to cross the Atlantic Ocean to make a stand."

She set sail from Plymouth, in Britain, two weeks ago in the Malizia II, a yacht fitted with solar panels and underwater turbines to generate electricity.