MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2020) German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday met with youth climate activist Greta Thunberg to discuss Germany's role in affecting Europe-wide environmental policy.
Government Spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters that Merkel met with the 17-year-old along with her co-campaigners, Germany's Luisa Neubauer and Belgium's Anuna De Wever.
"The central theme was the key climate points of the current German presidency of the EU Council, namely the goal of achieving climate neutrality of the EU by 2050 and the specification of refined intermediate targets for greenhouse gas emissions by 2030," Seibert said at a briefing in Berlin.
The interlocutors discussed imposing tariffs on carbon emissions and expediting Germany's coal power phase-out.
"Both sides were unanimous that global warming is a global challenge in which the regulation of industrialized countries acquires a special responsibility. The basis for this is the implementation of the Paris Agreement," Seibert added.
The spokesman went on to elaborate that the young activists pitted Merkel, a physicist by education, to the role of global leadership in the struggle against climate change.
Merkel has recently been the subject of criticism and performative protests over her commitment to phase out coal power plants by the late 2030s. German climate activists believe the target is too lax and demand the de facto leader of Europe set more ambitious goals.
Swedish national Thunberg shot to fame in late 2018 when she began to skip school in order to protest outside a government building to demand radical climate action.
She has since become the symbol of the youth movement demanding a sustainable future. The teenager has met with a slew of world leaders to push her case and was named 2019 Time's Person of the Year, having inspired marches and copycat activists around the world.
