Aachen, June 21 -- Thousands of students from across Europe protested Friday near a coal mine in western Germany, urging governments to take bolder action against climate change.

Organizers said up to 20,000 protesters from 16 countries took part in the rally in Aachen, near Germany's border with Belgium and the Netherlands. Demonstrators carried banners with slogans like "Your greed costs us our future" and "Stop coal."

It comes a day after European Union leaders failed to agree upon a plan to make the bloc's economy carbon neutral by 2050. Several large European countries - including Britain, France and Germany - have backed the target, but coal-reliant countries in the east, such as Poland, blocked consensus on the proposal, which en...