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German Chancellor Angela Merkel and representatives of Fridays for Future, a global climate strike movement, Thursday agreed that industrialized countries had a "special responsibility" to tackle global warming and climate issues, the German government said following their meeting.
Merkel and the environmental activists also agreed that "global warming is a global challenge," according to a statement by government spokesperson Steffen Seibert.
"We want leaders to take action and treat the climate crisis as a crisis," said the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg at a press conference after the 90-minute meeting with Merkel.
The "key topics" of the meeting were climate policy priorities during Germany's Council Presidency of the European Union, in particular the target of EU climate neutrality by 2050, according to the statement.
Merkel and the young climate activists also discussed the specification of a more stringent interim target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, said the statement.
Germany is aiming to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels and by at least 55 percent by 2030. It hopes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Merkel and the environmental activists also touched upon the importance of CO2 pricing and national climate policy measures such as the phasing out of coal-fired power generation, said the statement.
"We were thankful for the opportunity and for the time," said Luisa Neubauer from Fridays for Future, adding that the young activists "made it clear that we are asking for no more and no less than that the Paris climate agreement is translated into politics."
