Obama meets with Greta Thunberg, "one of our planet's greatest advocates"

Former President Obama praised climate activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday after meeting with the 16-year-old during her visit to Washington, D.C., to lobby lawmakers on environmental issues.

Why it matters: Thunberg rose to prominence through weekly climate protests and addresses to the UN Climate Change Summit in Poland and the World Economic Forum in Davos.

• She started the Fridays for Future school climate strikes in August last year when she staged a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament. It's grown into a global movement.
• Thunberg will lead a global climate strike this Friday ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit 3 days later, which she'll address.

The big picture: Thunberg also met with Green New Deal co-sponsor Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) at Congress. Markey tweeted that he was "proud to join young climate activists."

What he's saying: Markey tweeted, "By failing to take meaningful action on climate, our leaders failed the young people of the world. A generation of leaders owes our youngest generations an apology & a commitment to finally take the bold action we’ve failed to achieve."