Environment activist Greta Thunberg files UN complaint against Turkey and four other countries

Environment activist Greta Thunberg and 15 other young activists filed a complaint to the UN on Monday against five countries, saying they are not doing enough to tackle climate change.

Sixteen-year-old Thunberg accuses Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey of failing to uphold their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed 30-years-ago.

The fifteen other petitioners come from 12 different countries and aged between eight and 17, have accused the five countries of violating children's rights by failing to take timely and adequate action against climate change.

Every member of the UN except the US has ratified the convention to protect the health and rights of children.

The activists' case will be taken up by environmental legal firm Hausfeld LLP and Earthjustice.

The five countries mentioned in the complaint are among the top global polluters in the world and members of the G20.

The largest polluters in the world - the US, China and India - did not ratify the protocol.

Thunberg is in New York as world powers meet for the UN General Assembly Meeting, due to take place on Tuesday.

She travelled to the US by yacht, a zero-carbon journey that two weeks, to highlight to climate change.

As a 15-year-old, Thunberg made headlines in her native Sweden for holding weekly protests outside parliament against climate change.

Her school strikes snowballed into a global activist movement with huge pro-environment protests held last week across the world.