Environment
Climate crisis: Greta Thunberg and other young
activists meet Angela Merkel to demand action two years on from first school
strike
Teenagers accuse world leaders of ‘giving up without
trying’ to meet goals of Paris climate agreement
Harry
Cockburn
Leading
young climate activists including Greta Thunberg met with Germany's Chancellor
Angela Merkel on Thursday to demand tougher action to fight the climate crisis
and environmental breakdown.
Two years
after the Swedish teenager began her world famous school strike on her own
outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm, she accused world leaders of two
years of political inaction.
Ms
Thunberg, along with Luisa Neubauer from Germany and Anuna de Wever van der
Heyden and Adelaide Charlier, both from Belgium, arrived at the chancellery for
a 90-minute meeting, the first high-profile talks the youth activists have held
with a world leader since the start of the pandemic.
Arriving at
the meeting in Berlin, the activists and their supporters chanted: “We are
here, we are loud, because our future's being stolen,” as Ms Thunberg was
mobbed by photographers.
The
coronavirus outbreak has prevented the Fridays for Future movement Ms Thunberg
inspired from holding its mass rallies in recent months.
The
activists have repeatedly warned governments around the world are doing too far
too little to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases heating up the atmosphere.
Hotter
climate drove extinction of woolly rhinos, not humans
In a joint
statement published in The Guardian on Wednesday, they accused world leaders of
“giving up without even trying” to hit the emissions targets set out in the
Paris climate agreement.
“We need to
end the ongoing wrecking, exploitation and destruction of our life support
systems and move towards a fully decarbonised economy that is centred on the wellbeing
of all people, democracy and the natural world,” they said.
And in a
letter sent to world leaders last month, Ms Thunberg and other activists called
for measures including ending financing for oil and gas projects and setting
binding annual carbon budgets.
Ms Merkel's
spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said the German government recently agreed to to cut
emissions by up to 55 per cent over the coming decade compared with 1990
levels.
It also
backs plans for an EU Green Deal and for making Europe the first “climate neutral”
continent by 2050.
“The
subject [of climate change] is an issue of central importance for the entire
German government,” Ms Demmer said.
“As such,
an exchange with [the activists] is certainly beneficial.”
Germany
currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union. Ms
Merkel has in the past lauded the youth activists for putting pressure on
politicians to act against global warming.
Additional reporting by agencies
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário