Processions, sabotage, tribunals:this is how the struggle of young climate activists has changed.Neubauer:«We are only at the beginning» – The investigation

The last five years have brought about many achievements inside and outside the institutions.But the European future – activists tell Open – is anything but rosy.We collected their voices

How many things can change in five years?In 2019, the year of the last European elections, squares across Europe are colored green.It's the era of green wave, the wave of climate demonstrations born from the solitary protest of Greta Thunberg in front of the Swedish parliament and culminated in a global protest movement the likes of which had not been seen for decades.The message rising from the streets around the world is aimed directly at political decision-makers and goes more or less like this:"We are running out of time, we must act now."Dozens of heads of state and government jostle to get a photo together with that young Swedish activist who managed to get millions of her peers to take to the streets all over the world.There are few, however, who really take up the appeal of those squares.

One of the first political institutions to respond to the Fridays for Future protests is the European Union, which is bidding to become the first major economy in the world to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.In December 2019, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announces the Green Deal, the package of laws through which the EU promises to revolutionize every sector of its economy in the name of sustainability.An imperfect, incomplete, insufficient instrument, even at times contradictory.But with such a disruptive scope that it has become the main object of conflict between the various political parties in view of the next elections.On the one hand, there are those who claim what has been achieved in the last five years and ask to move forward with even more determination.On the other, those who promise to dismantle the Green Deal piece by piece.In the background, however, there are always them:those young activists who now, five years later, have every intention of continuing to make their voices heard.

The rediscovery of civil disobedience

If you try to make a comparison between the great climate strikes of 2019 and today's protests, there is above all one difference that catches the eye.The peaceful, colorful and lively marches of Fridays for Future have given way to new, more radical modes of protest, as evidenced by the popularity of movements such as Extinction Rebellion and Ultima Generazione.Second Tom Terriers, 25 years old, activist of Extinction Rebellion France, this evolution is not at all random.And there is an example that proves it.In 2019, Pres Emmanuel Macron launched the «Citizens' Convention for the Climate», a series of public meetings attended by 150 citizens drawn by lot, tasked with developing proposals to submit to the government.«The ideas that emerged were very ambitious, all the result of a bottom-up approach», recalls Terrier.Yet, few of those proposals have actually seen the light of day.«The lobbies – explains the young French activist – activated all their firepower and the result in the end was disappointing.Episodes like this do nothing but encourage radicalization."

France is certainly one of the European countries where climate protests have most taken the path of civil disobedience, with sensational actions, flash mobs, sabotage and occupations.At the beginning of 2023, the French government even tried to dismantle the collective Les Soulèvements de la Terre, one of the most radical fringes of the protest, only to be forced to take a step back after the enormous solidarity demonstrations organized throughout the country.Extinction Rebellion, of which Tom Terrier is a member, organized a major campaign against Total Energies, a French oil giant and one of the top four companies in the world in the energy sector.Oil & Gas."Some people managed to enter the factories and refineries," says the young activist, who makes no secret that he prefers radical actions like those to simple street demonstrations.«When you come home from a parade, you feel like you have lost because nothing has changed compared to before.With civil disobedience, however, you have the feeling of doing something braver and more concrete."

Lützerath, epicenter of the new climate fight

Rewinding the tape of what has happened in the last five years, the battle that has most succeeded in mobilizing environmental movements across Europe starts from Lützerath, a small village in Rhineland, Germany.Until 2006 it was home to around a hundred inhabitants, today it is nothing more than a ghost town.The reason?A few hundred meters away are two of the largest coal mines in the world:Garzweiler and Hambach.In recent years, RWE – a German company specializing in lignite, a very polluting form of coal – has obtained permission to expand its operations to include the former village of Lützerath, effectively forcing the inhabitants to flee forced.The company and local politicians were certainly expecting some form of resistance from residents and the main environmentalist groups.But they could not have foreseen that Lützerath, a tiny village unknown to most, would turn into the new stage of environmental protest.

In early 2023, thousands of activists gathered in the Rhineland to protest against the coal mine expansion.A huge demonstration, in which Greta Thunberg also took part.Those days in Lützerath he was also present Louise Neubauer, 28 years old, originally from Hamburg, one of the leading names of Fridays for Future in the world.It is also thanks to him that Germany has managed to stand out in recent years as one of the liveliest European countries in terms of climate protests.«The protests we launched in 2019 achieved extraordinary results.Not only because we have put the fight against climate change at the top of the political agenda, but also because now the climate has become one of those issues capable of deciding the outcome of an election", he explains to Open Louise Neubauer.

The promises of the Green Deal and the farmers' revolt

According to the 28-year-old activist, it was precisely the Fridays for Future protests, which began a few months after the last European elections, that convinced the political class - starting from the leaders of the European Union - to act.“The Green Deal is the best package of climate policies ever approved and at the same time it is totally insufficient to stem the climate crisis,” observes Neubauer.In short, some progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go.«The Green Deal has overturned the narrative that saw climate action as something that would force us to sacrifice economic growth or energy security.Today, for example, we have finally realized that there is a direct link between autocracies and fossil fuels", specifies the German activist.

The first real setback to the European green agenda came in the first months of 2024, when thousands of farmers took to the street on board their tractors in various European countries.There were some economic issues in the spotlight, starting from the lack of negotiating power in negotiations with the giants of large-scale retail trade, but also many of those environmental obligations introduced in 2021 with the reform of the CAP, the Common agricultural policy.«We still have a romantic idea of ​​the farmer, as if he were the neighbor who takes care of us and feeds us», explains Neubauer.«The truth, adds the German activist, is that in Europe the sector is dominated by industrial lobbies, not by small farmers».An overall similar vision also comes from Tom Terrier, who in France has seen the far right rise in the polls also thanks to the tractor protests.«Many of us in the climate movement did not understand the scope of those protests.The far right moved earlier and took control of the narrative, creating this artificial division between ecologists and farmers", explains the French activist from Extinction Rebellion.

From the squares to the courtrooms

Farmers permitting, the last five years have been quite lively for environmental movements.Street protests, marches, civil disobedience actions and even courtrooms.In fact, a few years ago a new tool was added to the arsenal of tactics that allows climate organizations to carry out their battles.It's about the climate litigation, in Italian «climate disputes», in which a group of citizens brings a lawsuit against a private company or a public body to contest the failure to comply with the obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.In Italy one of the first examples is the cause promoted by ReCommon and Greenpeace against the oil giant Eni.While one of the cases that has made waves at a European level comes from Belgium and has been renamed «Climate homes», the climate cause.It all began in 2014, when a group of eleven citizens took the government and local administrators to court accusing them of not doing enough to meet their climate commitments.“Our cause offers politicians a golden opportunity to demonstrate that they are true leaders who bring about positive change and deliver tangible benefits for their constituents.It can truly be the case where everyone wins,” he explains Serge de Gheldere, one of those eleven Belgian citizens who started the climate litigation ten years ago.

On November 30, 2023, the Brussels Court of Appeal delivered a historic ruling ordering the Belgian government and local governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, as per commitments. signed at European level.“Governments have the task of guiding us through epochal transitions like this, just as they have done in the past with public transport, education, healthcare,” observes de Gheldere.And when those same governments do not respect the commitments they make, there is a need for a "stick", as the Belgian activist defines it, or something that pushes them to really act.This was demonstrated historic ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, which upheld an appeal lodged by an association of elderly people - le Climate control – and condemned Switzerland for failing to take adequate measures against the advance of climate change.«In the past the same thing also happened in sectors such as asbestos, civil rights, tobacco and environmental pollution.Lawsuits – insists de Gheldere – have stimulated political reform and social progress, often anticipating politics."

Ecologists and workers, side by side

The experience of recent years has demonstrated that the fight for the climate is closely intertwined with many other demands:the rights of minorities, the fight against social inequalities, the right to a safe and well-paid job.An example of this intersectionality is the alliance between Fridays for Future Italia and the factory collective ofex Gkn of Campi Bisenzio, in Florence.It all starts in 2021, when the old owners of the company announced in an email the collective dismissal of over 400 workers and the desire to relocate production.The workers respond by occupying the factory and establishing a permanent assembly:this is where the dialogue with the environmentalist world begins.«There was a need to reindustrialise and create a production idea based on two pillars.First:the fact that workers can be at the helm of what they produce.Second:the need to focus on the ecological transition", he explains Martina Comparelli, spokesperson for Fridays for Future Italia.

In 2023, the environmental movement joined the factory collective and other entities to transform the former Gkn factory into "Italy's first socially integrated factory", capable of producing photovoltaic panels, batteries and cargo bikes.The goal was to raise at least 75 thousand euros to give an initial stimulus to the project.In the space of a few months, the total amount raised with the campaign crowdfunding was 173,690 euros.«We need to overcome the blackmail between the environment and work, which is done by those owners who say:“if the ecological transition takes place, you will lose your job”, observes Comparelli.The dispute of the workers of the former Gkn has not yet ended.At the end of 2023, the Labor Court of Florence accepted the appeal presented by Fiom-Cgil and averted the new attempt at collective dismissal which would have started from 1 January 2024.On Saturday 18 May, the workers of Campo Bisenzio returned to demonstrate in the streets of Florence, once again able to count on the support of the Fridays for Future activists.«For a movement like ours – insists Comparelli – it is important not to pit our fight against people's primary needs.And with Gkn we did exactly this."

The message in view of the June elections

From 2019 to today, the European panorama of climate activists has been enriched with new faces, has diversified its strategy and in a certain sense has also reached the stage of maturity.The fight against climate change has ended up at the top of political priorities, just as those protesters who for years occupied the squares across Europe asked for.Yet activists feel the work is far from over.«We are only at the beginning of this journey and there are already those who are asking to stop everything and go back», points out Luisa Neubauer.Even Martina Comparelli is not exactly optimistic in view of the vote on 8 and 9 June:«I don't know exactly what hopes we have for the upcoming elections», sighs the spokeswoman for Fridays for Future Italia.“There are some people inside the European Parliament who really want to change things,” explains Tom Terrier.Yet, the French activist adds bitterly, "all it takes is for someone to start flexing their muscles, like the farmers did, and they are all ready to erase all the good that has been done."And perhaps it is precisely with this attitude that climate activists present themselves at the European elections:a bit of optimism for what has been done, but also a lot of concern for what could happen.After all, how many things can change in the space of five years?Everything, if you look at the goals that have been achieved.Nothing, if the result of an election is enough to risk returning to the starting point.

Cover photo:Graphic design by Vincenzo Monaco