Petitioners calling for reduced carbon emissions address the parliament

The Slovak initiative Climate Needs You has submitted a petition to the National Council with more than 124,000 signatures. In the petition, they demand that political representatives accept the climate crisis as one of the state priorities by declaring a climate emergency in order to achieve Slovakia's carbon neutrality by 2040. At the same time, they demand the commitment of the Environment Ministry and other competent ministries to preparing a strategy for achieving carbon neutrality. The petitioners also demand a commitment from the government to support the stricter climate goals proposed by the European Union, ideally at the level of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent by 2030. The public initiative is supported by the environment minister, Ján Budaj, who stated in late September that "one cannot argue with the climate crisis, since the crisis is already here".