Germany's climate activists step up pressure on next government
More than 10,000 climate activists are expected to take part in a march in Berlin this Friday to call on Germany's next government to implement an ambitious 100-day climate plan in the first few months of their administration.
The march, which was organised by Friday for Future Germany, comes just a day after coalition negotiations between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP kicked off in the German capital.
Under the protest slogan, "You leave us no choice", the climate group wants underpin its climate protection demands for the new government.
Activists from all over Germany are expected to congregate for the march in Berlin, while smaller demonstrations are also planned in Baden-Württemburg and Thuringia.
The demonstrators will start at 12 noon at the Brandenburg Gate and then march through the government district. At around the same time on Friday, Greta Thunberg, the climate activist and founder of the Fridays for Future movement, will be leading a climate rally in her home town of Stockholm.
At the last Fridays for Future strike on Friday, September 24th, Thunberg had joined an estimated 100,000 people at a march in Berlin to raise awareness of the urgency of climate protections ahead of the German federal elections.
READ ALSO: Greta Thunberg joins German climate strikes before vote ‘of a century’
After a lightning-quick round of pre-coalition talks, the SPD, the Greens and the FDP kicked off their formal coalition negotiations in Berlin on Thursday. The three parties have agreed on an ambitious timetable: in the week from December 6-10th, they want to form a joint federal government with Chancellor Olaf Scholz at its head.
No further meetings are planned for the coming days, but talks are set to continue after the constituent session of the Bundestag on Tuesday.
Climate demands
On Wednesday - a day before the start of the formal coalition talks - Fridays for Future Germany presented six key demands for the first 100 days of the next federal government. These demands include:
- A legally-binding CO2 'budget' that conforms to the Paris Accord's 1.5C climate targets
- A binding coal phase-out by 2030
- A ban on the installation of fossil combustion engines from 2025
- An immediate stop to motorway and federal highway expansion
- €14 billion to fund international climate protection measures
- A sevenfold expansion in wind and solar energy
"We have no more time for legislative periods full of empty promises," said Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer as she tweeted to announce the plan for the march.
Unser Klimastreik startet morgen um 12 Uhr beim Brandenburger Tor (neuer Startpunkt!) - bringt euer liebstes Streik-Schild mit, Freund:innen und eine Regenjacke. Wir haben keine Zeit mehr für Legislaturperioden voller leerer Versprechen. #IhrLasstUnsKeineWahl
— Luisa Neubauer (@Luisamneubauer) October 21, 2021
Meanwhile, Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock has defended herself against the accusation that climate targets of the current federal government could be watered down in a future coalition.
"If we were to fall short of the targets, then we can take this whole paper and throw it in the bin," Baerbock said on Thursday evening in an interview on ZDF. In its initial coalition paper, the three parties have agreed to transition away from coal entirely by 2030 - a policy from the Green Party manifesto - but the extent of further climate protections could be a sticking point as serious negotiations begin.
READ ALSO: The five biggest hurdles for Germany’s coalition talks
In recent days, CDU politician Norbert Röttgen has criticised the plans of the 'traffic light' coalition - named after the colours of the three parties - on climate protection. Just a few weeks before the start of the World Climate Conference in Glasgow, it isn't clear what the coalition's "hallmark" policies on climate protection will be, Röttgen said.
A future traffic light coalition would simply continue the status quo of conducting occasional audits of business sectors to see if they were successfully reducing emissions, he argued. These sector reviews were a key part of the CDU/CSU and SPD's climate policy during the Grand Coalition's two terms in government.
However, SPD Secretary General Lars Klingbeil expressed confidence ahead of further coalition talks.
"Every party has been very well represented in the exploratory talks," he told the Funke Media Group on Friday. "In the coalition negotiations, it is a matter of making things much more concrete. But the common framework for a new beginning is in place."
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The march, which was organised by Friday for Future Germany, comes just a day after coalition negotiations between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP kicked off in the German capital.
Under the protest slogan, "You leave us no choice", the climate group wants underpin its climate protection demands for the new government.
Activists from all over Germany are expected to congregate for the march in Berlin, while smaller demonstrations are also planned in Baden-Württemburg and Thuringia.
The demonstrators will start at 12 noon at the Brandenburg Gate and then march through the government district. At around the same time on Friday, Greta Thunberg, the climate activist and founder of the Fridays for Future movement, will be leading a climate rally in her home town of Stockholm.
At the last Fridays for Future strike on Friday, September 24th, Thunberg had joined an estimated 100,000 people at a march in Berlin to raise awareness of the urgency of climate protections ahead of the German federal elections.
READ ALSO: Greta Thunberg joins German climate strikes before vote ‘of a century’
After a lightning-quick round of pre-coalition talks, the SPD, the Greens and the FDP kicked off their formal coalition negotiations in Berlin on Thursday. The three parties have agreed on an ambitious timetable: in the week from December 6-10th, they want to form a joint federal government with Chancellor Olaf Scholz at its head.
No further meetings are planned for the coming days, but talks are set to continue after the constituent session of the Bundestag on Tuesday.
Climate demands
On Wednesday - a day before the start of the formal coalition talks - Fridays for Future Germany presented six key demands for the first 100 days of the next federal government. These demands include:
- A legally-binding CO2 'budget' that conforms to the Paris Accord's 1.5C climate targets
- A binding coal phase-out by 2030
- A ban on the installation of fossil combustion engines from 2025
- An immediate stop to motorway and federal highway expansion
- €14 billion to fund international climate protection measures
- A sevenfold expansion in wind and solar energy
"We have no more time for legislative periods full of empty promises," said Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer as she tweeted to announce the plan for the march.
Unser Klimastreik startet morgen um 12 Uhr beim Brandenburger Tor (neuer Startpunkt!) - bringt euer liebstes Streik-Schild mit, Freund:innen und eine Regenjacke. Wir haben keine Zeit mehr für Legislaturperioden voller leerer Versprechen. #IhrLasstUnsKeineWahl
— Luisa Neubauer (@Luisamneubauer) October 21, 2021
Meanwhile, Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock has defended herself against the accusation that climate targets of the current federal government could be watered down in a future coalition.
"If we were to fall short of the targets, then we can take this whole paper and throw it in the bin," Baerbock said on Thursday evening in an interview on ZDF. In its initial coalition paper, the three parties have agreed to transition away from coal entirely by 2030 - a policy from the Green Party manifesto - but the extent of further climate protections could be a sticking point as serious negotiations begin.
READ ALSO: The five biggest hurdles for Germany’s coalition talks
In recent days, CDU politician Norbert Röttgen has criticised the plans of the 'traffic light' coalition - named after the colours of the three parties - on climate protection. Just a few weeks before the start of the World Climate Conference in Glasgow, it isn't clear what the coalition's "hallmark" policies on climate protection will be, Röttgen said.
A future traffic light coalition would simply continue the status quo of conducting occasional audits of business sectors to see if they were successfully reducing emissions, he argued. These sector reviews were a key part of the CDU/CSU and SPD's climate policy during the Grand Coalition's two terms in government.
However, SPD Secretary General Lars Klingbeil expressed confidence ahead of further coalition talks.
"Every party has been very well represented in the exploratory talks," he told the Funke Media Group on Friday. "In the coalition negotiations, it is a matter of making things much more concrete. But the common framework for a new beginning is in place."
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