Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday to mark the second anniversary of her first school strike and push for more reform.
Thunberg will meet Merkel and other activists to impress upon the German leader that there isn't enough happening in Europe to mitigate the effects of global warming.
"Today, leaders all over the world are speaking of an 'existential crisis,'" Thunberg wrote, with youth activists Luisa Neubauer of Germany and Anuna de Wever and Adelaide Charlier of Belgium, in an op-ed in The Guardian.
"The climate emergency is discussed on countless panels and summits. Commitments are being made, big speeches are given. Yet, when it comes to action we are still in a state of denial."
They said they'll tell Merkel she "must face up to the climate emergency" and that Europe has a responsibility to act.
"It is immoral that the countries that have done the least to cause the problem are suffering first and worst," they added. "The [European Union] must act now, as it has signed up to do in the Paris [climate] Agreement."
The young activists said nations of the world must end all fossil fuel investments and subsidies, divest, make ecocide an international crime, create better policies, safeguard democracy and establish carbon budgets.
"We need to end the ongoing wrecking, exploitation and destruction of our life support systems and move towards a fully decarbonized economy that is centered on the well-being of all people, democracy and the natural world," they wrote.
