Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has launched a tirade against 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg.

The outspoken 59-year-old lambasted Thunberg in an article for UK tabloid The Sun following her impassioned plea at the United Nations Climate Change Summit last week.

"I'm sorry Ms Thunberg, but if you're going to lay into my generation, you must accept it when I lay into you and yours," he wrote.

"We gave you mobile phones and laptops and the internet. We created the social media you use every day and we run the banks that pay for it all," he added.

"So how dare you stand there and lecture us, you spoilt brat."

Using Thunberg's own "how dare you" war cry from her speech, Clarkson attempted to dismantle her argument by pointing a finger at her family sailing boat.

"How dare you sail to America on a carbon fibre yacht that you didn't build which cost £15million, that you didn’t earn, and which has a back-up diesel engine that you didn't mention," he said.

Clarkson said Thunberg should "shut up" on two different occasions, calling her UN appearance a "full-on adolescent meltdown".

The controversial television presenter demanded Thunberg go back to school and study hard in her science classes.

"Many thousands of people who you had the temerity to blame this week are trying to do exactly what you want," he wrote.

"So be a good girl, shut up and let them get on with it."

Finally, appearing to adopt a faux-father figure approach, Clarkson concluded: "And no. You cannot stay out past 10. And you cannot go out in a skirt that short."

Newshub.