Thousands take to streets in Germany demanding climate action

By Anadolu staff

BERLIN (AA) - Thousands of people took to the streets across German cities on Friday, demanding urgent action to tackle global warming.

In the capital Berlin, a massive crowd gathered around the Brandenburg Gate to attend the rally organized by the youth-led climate movement Fridays for Future.

Addressing the crowd, prominent climate activist Luisa Neubauer said the movement has achieved many goals in the past five years, but much more needs to be done to increase pressure on the government to take the climate crisis serious.

“We are now in a historic time period, and we as the civil society will decide where to go. Are we going to allow the government to waste time that we don't have, or are wo going to intervene?” she said.

“Are we going to allow large corporations to cheat their way through with green promises, or are we going to expose them?” Neubauer continued.

“Are we going to allow more money to be allocated for fossil subsidies instead of more investments in health, education and climate protection, or are we going to stand against these? These are the big questions now.”

Neubauer vowed that protests will continue until the German government changes its policy, takes real steps to phase out fossil fuels, and ensure climate justice and equity.

Demonstrators carried banners and signs that read: “Planet before profit,” “End fossil fuels,” “Save the world together,” “Climate justice, now!” and “We have not inherited the earth from our parents, but borrowed it from our children.”

The Berlin protest was part of Fridays for Future’s global climate strike action, which was held in dozens of countries and hundreds of cities around the world.

In Germany, thousands of protestors marched in more than 250 towns and cities, including Hamburg, Cologne and Munich.

German environmental groups are heavily criticizing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government for not taking serious measures to limit global warming, but instead further investing in fossil fuel infrastructure, reverting to coal power stations, and building LNG terminals.

They are demanding the restriction of global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), making Germany climate neutral by 2035, phasing out all coal-fired power plants by 2030, and switching all energy supplies to renewables by 2035.