Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has skipped school to draw attention to climate change for the last time — not because she no longer wants to protest, but because she has graduated.  

The 20-year-old started staging Friday protests outside the Swedish parliament building during school hours in 2018, inspiring teenagers from around the world to follow her lead. 

This created an international student movement called Fridays for Future.

The activist staged her final protest outside parliament on Friday, wearing a cap high school graduates typically wear in Sweden.

Because she would no longer be a student, Ms Thunberg said her future Friday activities “technically” would not be school striking.

But in a tweet, she vowed to continue protesting, saying: “The fight has only just begun.”

“We are still moving in the wrong direction, where those in power are allowed to sacrifice,”  Ms Thunberg wrote on Twitter.

“We’re rapidly approaching potential nonlinear ecological and climatic tipping points beyond our control.”

American singer-songwriter Patti Smith, who was in Stockholm for a concert on Friday, showed up at the demonstration and told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter she got tears in her eyes when meeting Ms Thunberg.

“This is Greta Thunberg, faithfully taking her Friday School Strike for Climate Action. She graduates today, and we extend our gratitude and congratulations,” she wrote on Instagram.

As a teenager Ms Thunberg was invited to speak to political and business leaders at UN conferences and the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.

She also was named Time magazine’s youngest Person of the Year in 2019 and received several nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She urged the media to focus on other young activists.

AP/ABC