Merkel Backs `Friday for Future' Protests on Climate Change

(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she supported the nation’s students taking to the streets to fight for more action to prevent climate change.

“I know that the students want some things more quickly -- for example, phasing out coal,” Merkel said Saturday in her weekly podcast.

Students in German cities such as Hamburg and Munich have joined counterparts worldwide in holding “Fridays for the Future” rallies. The movement calls on students to skip school and demonstrate support of climate-change action. Germany, alongside other European Union member states, has committed to reducing climate-warming carbon-dioxide emissions by 40 percent in 2030, and the country is set to quit coal-fired power by 2038.

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