Fridays for Future activists call for 100-billion-euro climate fund for Germany

Activists from the Fridays for Future student group have called on the German government to set up a special fund for “massive” investments in climate action. “We call for a special fund of 100 billion euros to fight the climate crisis, for social justice and thus for livelihood security,” activist Annika Rittmann said at a press conference in Berlin. “The U.S. has led the way with the largest climate package, and now the German government must act,” she said, referencing a landmark package the U.S. government decided on this summer. Activist Luisa Neubauer added that a “massive investment offensive” should target German independence of foreign fossil fuels, support those struggling with currently high prices, and go to countries already suffering most from the climate crisis in the form of climate finance. She added that the 100 billion euros should be just a “starting point” to help Germany “break out of a spiral of crises” it is currently facing.

The president of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), Marcel Fratzscher, joined the Fridays for Future activists in their demands, criticising the government’s energy crisis relief packages so far. “The blind spot of these relief packages is that they do not take into account the long-term perspective, the long-term transformation.”

Increasingly, the Fridays for Future school strikers are speaking up about social issues, including racism, feminism, LGBTQ rights and economic inequality. Above all, they call for a just transition. The group is organising a global climate strike on 23 September under the hashtag #PeopleNotProfit, criticising that “climate struggle is class struggle”.