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11/3/09

Angela Merkel makes emotional plea for action to reduce global warming in speech to a joint session of Congress

EU-Digest

During a speech today to a joint session of Congress German Chancellor Angela Merkel marked the upcoming 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by urging world leaders to embrace globalization. She said countries should not wall themselves off from each other. In her speech which was punctuated by standing ovations, she also stressed Germany’s ongoing commitment to Afghanistan and said Iran must be prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons. In an emotional plea for action to reduce global warming she was met with an eerie silence from most Republicans, while Democrats stood and applauded. "We all know we have no time to lose," Merkel said, arguing that at Copenhagen "the world will look to us, to the Europeans and to the Americans" for leadership on setting binding reductions of greenhouse gases. It's a matter "in the interest of our children and grandchildren and in the interest of sustainable development all over the world," she said.

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