"Grown-up male leaders" around the world are “scared” of 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, according to Hillary Clinton.
The comments came as the former United States secretary of state was promoting a book with her daughter, Chelsea.
The pair have written a book, which according to promotional material, “shares the stories of the gutsy women who have inspired them”.
Ms Thunberg was included in “The Book Of Gutsy Women: Favourite Stories Of Courage And Resilience” when the Clinton women found out about her now-famous solitary climate strike in front of the Swedish parliament.
“We were so moved by it,” Ms Clinton said.
“It’s been fascinating to watch how scared a lot of grown-up male leaders are of this young 16-year-old girl who speaks up about the threat of climate change.”
Hillary Clinton (left) talking to Mary Beard at the Southbank Centre in London at the launch of Gutsy Women: Favourite Stories of Courage and Resilience Source: AP
“You could probably take some of the people who have been so critical of her on social media and in other settings, attach them to a lie detector and say ‘don’t you think that’s a bit sexist?’”
Climate change deniers are attacking Ms Thunberg because they now realise they cannot question the science surrounding it, Chelsea added.
“More broadly, her real clarity and fearlessness and just being so unbowed and relentlessly focused on the future, I think, is incredibly threatening to a lot of people,” she said.
The Clintons' book also includes African-American slavery abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Pakistani activist and youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, and legendary US tennis player Serena Williams.
