Climate crisis: Fridays for Future protest in several cities

Before a demonstration by the climate protection movement Fridays for Future this Friday in Berlin, the activist Luisa Neubauer accuses the federal government of preparing a weakened version of the climate protection law.

“We will do everything in our power to prevent the law from being irresponsibly softened,” said the 27-year-old of the German Press Agency in Berlin. The movement’s spokesman, Pit Terjung, complained: “The traffic light government’s halfway point is just around the corner and the coalition is giving its own climate goals a head-on rejection.”

Pressure before the parliamentary summer recess

The starting point of the demonstration in Berlin is the FDP party headquarters in Mitte, after which it should go towards the Chancellery. Protests are also planned in other cities, including Hamburg, Bamberg and Görlitz.

According to Fridays for Future, pressure should be put on politicians three weeks before the parliamentary summer recess. Recently, many important climate policy measures have been delayed or watered down, it said. In particular, the blocking attitude of the FDP repeatedly collides with “overdue decisions on climate justice”. This can be clearly seen with the heating law, for example, the decision of which was delayed for weeks.

With regard to the climate protection law, Neubauer and Terjung complain that according to the draft by climate protection minister Robert Habeck (Greens), annual checks in individual sectors such as industry, transport or agriculture for saving climate-damaging CO2 emissions should be abolished. “It is incomprehensible that the traffic light now wants to fall behind the grand coalition and in all seriousness wants to delete the sector targets from the climate protection law,” said Neubauer. Now it would be better to adapt the climate protection law to the “well-known underground work ethic of Problem Minister Volker Wissing”.

Transport sector as a climate “problem child”

For many experts, the transport sector for which the FDP politician is responsible is the biggest “problem child” when it comes to climate protection. In 2022, CO2 emissions increased here compared to the previous year, and the annual emissions permitted under the Climate Protection Act were exceeded.

On Wednesday, Habeck initiated the reform of the climate protection law demanded by the coalition partner FDP – together with a new climate protection program. If targets for CO2 savings in areas such as transport are missed, the entire government should make adjustments in the future and not the responsible departments as has been the case up to now.

The law that has been in force so far has not ensured that the transport sector meets the climate targets, said Habeck. “In the grand coalition and also in the traffic light government, the transport sector did not deliver and nobody was interested.”