Berlin Green, blue, yellow: With every new crisis, the posters of the Fridays for Future activists become more colorful and the demands more diverse. “Speed limit immediately”, “No oil and gas from Putin”, “Stop War” – these are some of the words that will be held up on cardboard at the tenth global climate demonstration on Friday.
The movement, originally made up mainly of schoolchildren and students, has diversified – it’s no longer just about the climate. Several generations are now active and since the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the latest, Fridays for Future (FFF) has had to position itself thematically more broadly.
The activists called for protests in 300 German cities, as well as in Tunisia, Mexico, Portugal, Bangladesh and Australia.
“Climate justice and peace are inextricably linked,” explained climate activist Elisa Bas at a press conference in advance. “This is a realization we are bitterly reminded of today with this war.”
Fridays for Future spokeswoman Pauline Brünger from Cologne also emphasizes how climate and security are related. There is simply no time for that.
According to the police, around ten thousand demonstrators gathered at Invalidenpark in Berlin. There were boos in the direction of the Ministry of Economic Affairs for the Green Minister Robert Habeck, who is currently looking around the world for new energy suppliers for Germany – including in Qatar, where human rights violations are the order of the day.
According to Brünger, the procedure has caused irritation among many activists. Not only would mistakes be repeated, but “new fossil dependency on an autocracy hostile to human rights” would be forced.
Fridays for Future: Don’t lose sight of climate goals
In his speech to the German Bundestag, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the fact that the German government’s actions too often put the economy in the foreground. Despite comprehensive sanctions, the EU still pays hundreds of millions of euros every day for energy supplies from Russia.
Fridays for Future not only calls on the government to stop gas and oil supplies from Russia, but also not to lose sight of the climate goals in view of the energy crisis. “We must not find an answer to one crisis that will exacerbate the next crisis,” Brünger warns.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz had assured that he would not make any compromises in climate protection because of the war and its consequences. “The long overdue investments in defense and security are not at the expense of the urgently needed transformation to a climate-neutral economy,” he emphasized on Wednesday at the general debate in the Bundestag.
In order for the government to be able to keep this promise, Fridays for Future in an interview with the Handelsblatt calls for one Five-point plan for dual crisis management:
1. Ban on imports of Russian energy
The activists call on the federal government to stop oil and gas imports from Russia. “Germany and the EU are funding this war every day by importing oil and gas from Russia. And it is also these fossil energies that are fueling the climate crisis,” explains Brünger.
Despite increasing public pressure, the government currently rejects such an energy embargo. Germany cannot do without energy supplies overnight, stressed Chancellor Scholz in the Bundestag on Wednesday. However, one wants to “end the dependency on Russian energy as soon as possible”.
>>Read more about this: How Germany frees itself from Russian energy dependency
In the long term, however, there is only one sustainable answer to energy dependency and high energy prices: renewable energies and energy efficiency.
2. Phasing out fossil fuels by 2035
“We now have to make ourselves independent in terms of energy policy. Not only from Russia, but from all autocracies in the world,” demands Brünger. In order to prevent new long-term oil and gas partnerships from emerging, a concrete exit date is needed. Fridays for Future wants to phase out all fossil fuels by 2035 at the latest.
In contrast to oil, gas and coal, renewable energies are decentralized, freely available and often organized in the hands of the citizens. In this way, they would offer significantly better conditions for peace.
3. Massive expansion of renewable energies and faster heat transition
In order to guarantee the energy supply, Fridays for Futures calls for massive investments in the expansion of renewable energies. In addition, according to Bünger, legal hurdles such as the distance regulation for wind turbines must be removed.
Germany is particularly dependent on Russia in the area of heat supply, since a large proportion of residential properties are heated with gas. The activists are therefore calling for a stop to the installation of gas heating and an offensive in the use of heat pumps.
4. Introduce speed limits and save energy
An analysis by the environmental protection organization Greenpeace has shown that a speed limit can save every third liter of oil that Germany is currently importing from Russia. The climate activists are therefore demanding a speed limit. “There are no bureaucratic hurdles or costs,” says Brünger.
On the other hand, she doesn’t think much of “freezing for freedom”. It is precisely this burden on citizens that one wants to avoid. It makes sense, however, if private households do not turn up the heating more often than necessary. how you can sensibly save unnecessary energy.”
5. No subsidies for fossil fuels
Because of the high energy prices, the traffic light agreed on a relief package on Wednesday evening. The fuel discount demanded by the FDP and criticized by economists does not come, instead a temporary tax reduction on fuel. The FFF spokeswoman sees this critically. “Subsidized fuel is a backdoor fuel voucher,” she says. These measures and the increase in the commuter allowance would miss the supposed goal of social balance. “We have to move away from cars altogether, instead of creating incentives to use them more.”
A subsidized local transport ticket, as also announced by the federal government, is therefore basically exactly the right thing. In addition, however, investments are needed in the expansion of public transport. “A cheap ticket alone is of no use to people who live in places where the bus only comes three times a day,” says Brünger.
More: 300 euros energy price flat rate and less taxes on fuel – that includes the new relief package