Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage climate activist who prompted a global movement, will embark on a two-week journey from the UK to the US on a high-tech racing yacht next month in order to attend a UN climate summit without resorting to plane travel.

The 16-year-old, whose campaign inspired tens of thousands of students in Europe to skip classes to protest for faster action against climate change, refuses to travel by air because of the high greenhouse gas emissions it produces.

She has spent months looking for a way to travel to the September summit without using planes or cruise ships.

Finally, on Monday, she tweeted: “Good news!... I’ve been offered a ride on the 60ft racing boat Malizia II.”

She will leaving the UK in mid-August on the high-speed yacht, which was built to race around the globe.

The yacht is owned by property developer Gerhard Senft and sponsored by the Yacht Club de Monaco, which said it was “honoured" to sail Miss Thunberg "emission-free over the Atlantic”.

The boat is fitted with solar panels and underwater turbines to generate zero-carbon electricity on-board.