In many cities around the world, people are taking to the streets to demonstrate for more ambition in the fight against the climate crisis. In Germany, the Verdi union is also taking part this time. Activist Neubauer sharply criticized the federal government at the demo in Berlin.
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Germany and other countries around the world for more ambition in the fight against the climate crisis. There were large protest marches by the Fridays for Future climate movement, each with thousands of participants, in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne and Frankfurt am Main, among other places. Actions were planned at more than 250 locations nationwide. Slogans such as “Climate protection instead of coal pollution”, “Speed ??limit now!” were emblazoned on posters. or “No bad compromises”.
In many places, the Verdi union was also involved. She had called for warning strikes in local transport in several federal states – where public transport was paralyzed in many regions. According to Verdi, a total of 60,000 employees laid down their jobs. The background is the collective bargaining conflict for the approximately 2.5 million federal and local employees. Next Wednesday, Verdi wants to extend the warning strikes nationwide to daycare centers and social facilities.
There were also international protests by the climate protection movement. For example, many thousands of people took to the streets in New Zealand and Austria. Hundreds of demonstrations and rallies on all continents were announced, this time under the motto
According to the police, around 5,500 people gathered in Hamburg. In a speech, Annika Rittmann from Fridays for Future called for a drastic turnaround in traffic. “The number of cars on German roads has to go down,” she said. And with the train, frequency and punctuality would have to be increased and fares reduced.
At the rally in Berlin, the activist Luisa Neubauer specifically targeted the federal government and the coal, oil and gas companies. “They thought they could get away with green words and green speeches – whether it was parties, chancellors or corporations. They thought we wouldn’t notice if they were secretly continuing, as if we had three more planets lying around on the motorway construction site.”
Neubauer criticized the FDP particularly sharply. It was Olympic-ready how “this unpopular mini-party” successfully refused to “simply say yes to any good idea”. The FDP is not only blocking the energy transition and the construction transition in the federal government, but now also the EU-wide end of the combustion engine.
For Germany, Fridays for Future demands, among other things, a coal phase-out by 2030, 100 percent renewable energy supply by 2035 and the immediate end of subsidies for fossil fuels and an expansion freeze for motorways. The current call for a strike complains that terminals for the import of liquefied gas are being built in Germany at a rapid pace, while the expansion of renewable energies is still faltering.
At the international level, one of the key demands on politicians is to stop the financing of all oil and gas projects worldwide in order to avert the impending climate catastrophe and to meet the 1.5 degree target. What is meant is the goal agreed at the 2015 UN climate conference in Paris to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times.
Depending on the region, the fatal consequences are more frequent and more severe storms, droughts, floods and heat waves. The international strike call states that every dollar that flows into the financing of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal is “stained with blood”.
