Germany to mull carbon tax as part of national climate pact

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Two girls show their posters, reading : 'The snowman is too warm' and 'Coal is not cool' as they attend a students climate strike as part of the Friday's For Future movement in Berlin, Friday, April 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Germany's environment minister says the government will discuss introducing a carbon tax as part of its national plan to curb climate change.

Speaking after the first meeting of a special "climate Cabinet," German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said Wednesday that government ministers would, over the coming months, put forward proposals for cutting greenhouse gases in the areas they oversee.

Germany's transport ministry opposes sector-specific targets, but Schulze insisted "everyone will have to shoulder some of the responsibility."

She also displayed openness to some kind of carbon tax. Other countries have already introduced carbon pricing to discourage the burning of fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases and stoke global warming.

Schulze said of such carbon taxes that "there are many different models that will also be debated in Cabinet."