Climate change: Angela Merkel welcomes school strikes

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she supports school students' protests about climate change.

Students in Hamburg joined climate strikes on Friday

It appears to contradict some education officials, who have criticised participants for skipping school and threatened them with exclusion.

Mrs Merkel said students might be frustrated at the time taken to move away from coal-based energy but asked them to understand it was a challenge.

Across the world, some students have been leaving school to demand action.

On Friday thousands of high school students in the city of Hamburg marched against climate change, with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg - who started the series of school strikes - present.

Read the story from the BBC News  - “Climate change: Angela Merkel welcomes school strikes.”

Global leaders call for increased efforts to fight climate change

G

lobal leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have called on countries and companies to put a price on carbon to speed up efforts to fight climate change.

In what has been described as an unprecedented alliance ahead of the Paris climate summit starting next month, the leaders said pricing emissions was needed to steer the global economy to a low-carbon future that would avoid dangerous levels of global warming.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Leaders of the IMF, World Bank and Germany's Angela Merkel call for price on carbon.”