Thunberg, Neubauer speak after meeting Merkel

Young activists, including Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, held talks Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to press their demands for tougher action on curbing climate change and to get their cause back on the political agenda.

Thunberg, 17, Luisa Neubauer, 24, of Germany and Belgians Anuna de Wever van der Heyden, 19, and Adélaïde Charlier, 19, were accompanied by a handful of climate protesters as they arrived at the chancellery in Berlin, the first talks the youth activists have held with a head of government since the start of the pandemic.

"We are sort of in the loop where everyone blames each other because no one can do everything so then no one does anything," said Thunberg, speaking after the meeting.

The 17-year-old shot to fame after starting her solo protests outside the Swedish parliament two years ago.

"The climate crisis doesn't pause and so we need to think of how to divide our tension (attention) and our energy and to act," said climate activist, Luisa Neubauer.

Students around the world began following her lead, staging regular large protests, and Thunberg was invited to speak to political and business leaders at UN conferences and the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.

But the coronavirus outbreak has prevented the Fridays for Future movement that Thunberg inspired from holding its mass rallies in recent months, dampening its public profile.

The activists had sought a meeting with the chancellor because Germany currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, which together with Britain accounts for 22% of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Merkel has in the past lauded the youth activists for putting pressure on politicians to act against global warming.