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Greta Thunberg Detained at Brussels Climate Protest Against Fossil Fuel Subsidies
"Our politicians have failed us," a campaigner said. "European leaders' continued support for the fossil fuel industry raises serious questions about their commitment to effective climate action."
Oct 06, 2024
Renowned activist Greta Thunberg was detained on Saturday at a climate protest in Brussels aimed at ending European Union fossil fuel subsidies.
The protest included hundreds of campaigners from Extinction Rebellion and other groups; they came together under the name United for Climate Justice (UCJ). One group of them marched in an area near the European Parliament, while another group that included Thunberg blocked a section of the Boulevard du Jardin Botanique.
"Our politicians have failed us," Paolo Destilo, a UCJ spokesperson, told Politico. "European leaders' continued support for the fossil fuel industry raises serious questions about their commitment to effective climate action."
Another UCJ spokesperson, Angela Huston Gold, pointed to devastating floods that recently hit Europe and Africa as a warning sign for the planet.
"Increasingly frequent and extreme natural disasters are likely to claim a billion victims by the end of the century, mainly due to the use of fossil fuels," Huston Gold said in a statement, citing a 2023 study in Energies, a journal. "To avoid ecological and social collapse, fossil fuel subsidies must end now."
😊Happy to see @GretaThunberg keeping us company! pic.twitter.com/yVwj1IPeTR
— stopfossilsubsidies (@stopfossilsubs) October 5, 2024
The European Commission published a report last year showing that the EU spent 123 billion euros ($135 billion) on fossil fuel subsidies in 2022, an increase on previous years that was caused by policy decisions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (2022 was the last year included in the report.) The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development listed still higher figures for 2022.
EU's Eighth Environment Action Program, which entered into force in May 2022, calls for a phaseout of fossil fuel subsidies, but national governments haven't taken action, so progress is "uncertain," according to the European Environment Agency, which is part of the EU.
Thunberg on Saturday told Politico that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who's been in office since 2019, was not a green champion.
UCJ on Tuesday sent an open letter to von der Leyen and other EU institutional leaders calling for a phaseout of fossil fuel subsidies by 2025. "The EU should provide technical and financial assistance to member states facing challenges in meeting phaseout deadlines and offer incentives for achieving milestones ahead of schedule," it says.
Staffers at the European Commission were in fact among the demonstrators in Brussels on Saturday, Politico reported.
"There's a lot of tools the institutions have now to fight climate change, but since the [European Parliament elections in June] there's been a lot of backtracking," one commission staffer told Politico, given anonymity in order to speak freely.
"It's now all about competitiveness and the 'clean industrial deal,' whatever that means," the staffer added. "The urgency has been lost—the Parliament has shifted to the right, the commission in many ways has shifted to the right—and discussion of the climate has faded into the background."
Thunberg, who's now 21, came to fame as a 15-year-old activist in Sweden who helped form the global school strikes for climate movement. She's been arrested numerous times, including at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Denmark earlier this month.
Thunberg and other activists who sat with interlocked arms on the Boulevard du Jardin Botanique were arrested and taken to the police station, according to The Brussels Times.
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Thousands March in Brussels Against Far-Right Gains in EU Elections
"It's important to show that we're in solidarity with everyone, whatever their nationality, whatever they earn, whatever they do," said a member of the Anti-Fascist Coordination of Belgium.
Jun 17, 2024
Thousands of people came together in Brussels on Sunday to march against the far-right parties' recent gains in the European Union elections—the second such protest in the Belgian capital since the results were announced earlier this month.
Sunday's march was organized by the Anti-Fascist Coordination of Belgium. The Brussels Times reported that "some 20 social movements and organizations are part of the CAB, including Young FGTB, Ades network, the Anti-Fascist Front of Liège, MOC Brussels, ASBL Garance, Ecolo J, and Mrax."
The organizers aimed to offer a "popular response and a contrasting social agenda" to the E.U.'s far-right movement, which they said "exacerbates social degradation" and promotes "absolutely disastrous policies" targeting democratic rights, the LGTBQ+ community, migrants, women, and workers.
"It will never be the far right that calls for taxing the richest, increasing the number of social housing, or implementing an ecological transition rooted in a logic of social justice, which is necessary for our common future."
"The far right will never demand higher wages for all," the organizers said. "It will never be the far right that calls for taxing the richest, increasing the number of social housing, or implementing an ecological transition rooted in a logic of social justice, which is necessary for our common future."
CAB member Sixtine Van Outryve told Euronews that "this march is important today to show a message of hope in the face of the messages of despair that the far right wants to bring us."
"It's important to show that we're in solidarity with everyone, whatever their nationality, whatever they earn, whatever they do," she said. "We stand together and we want a society that doesn't divide us. A society that doesn't exclude, a society that isn't racist or sexist."
"Many of us were shocked by the election results, showing far-right breakthroughs at the European level," Van Outryve added, expressing concern about the "alarming" normalization of far-right discourse.
The right-wing surge in the 27-member bloc's elections was widely anticipated, as key figures from across the continent and beyond collectively campaigned against migrants, feminism, socialism, LGBTQ+ rights, and the United Nations.
Parties that did well in the E.U. contests included Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy, Germany's Alternative für Deutschland, and Marine le Pen's National Rally in France, where President Emmanuel Macron responded to the results by calling snap national elections scheduled for June 30 and July 7.
As The Guardian reported earlier this month, "A surge in support for far-right parties in France, Germany, and Austria was tempered by strong support for centrist and left-wing groups in other countries."
The mixed results mean Ursula von der Leyen—who is tied to Germany's center-right Christian Democratic Union and the European People's Party—is expected to secure a second five-year term as president of the European Commission.
The Sunday march preceded a Monday evening meeting for heads of state and government to begin discussing who will fill that role and other top E.U. posts. In addition to the commission spot, The Guardian noted, "leaders will also decide on successors to Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, and Josep Borrell, the E.U.'s top diplomat."
"Consensus is also firming around Portugal's Socialist former Prime Minister António Costa to take over from Michel in chairing E.U. Council meetings," according to the British newspaper. "Estonia's prime minister, Kaja Kallas, is a favorite to take over from Borrell."
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Belgian Police Arrest 132 Climate Defenders Demanding End to Fossil Fuel Subsidies
"The fact that national governments are subsidizing fossil fuels is akin to a crime against humanity," said one Extinction Rebellion organizer.
May 05, 2024
The climate action group Extinction Rebellion Belgium on Saturday decried what it called "disproportionate police violence" against nonviolent demonstrators who were arrested during a protest in Brussels demanding an end to fossil fuel subsidies.
Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion-led climate defenders blocked Rue Belliard in the European Quarter, the de facto European Union capital, during EU Open Day, when agencies of the 27-nation bloc open their doors to the public. In what Extinction Rebellion called an "unprecedented police response," officers allegedly struck protesters with batons and used chemical agents against demonstrators.
Brussels police said 132 activists—some of whom glued themselves to the ground—were arrested.
"This police behavior toward nonviolent protesters exercising their freedom of assembly is illegal and authoritarian," Extinction Rebellion Belgium said in a statement Saturday.
"We call on the police to exercise restraint and respect the right to demonstrate peacefully and without violence," the group added.
The activists are calling on European governments to stop subsidizing fossil fuels amid a worsening planetary crisis. They're also demanding the declaration of a climate emergency.
"National and European governments are spending at least €405 billion each year subsidizing major fossil fuel corporations," protest spokesperson Bertina Maes told The Brussels Times. "That's ten times more than what's spent on climate policy."
Maes said the Belgian government alone spent as much as €20 billion ($21.5 billion) on fossil fuel subsidies in 2020, more than 2% of the country's gross domestic product.
"The fact that national governments are subsidizing fossil fuels is akin to a crime against humanity," she asserted.
This weekend's demonstration and arrests come a month before E.U. parliamentary elections. According to an April Eurobarometer survey conducted by the European Parliament, climate action is the fifth-most important issue to voters, after poverty and social exclusion, health, jobs, and defense and security.
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Green Groups Protest 'Nuclear Fairy Tale' in Brussels
"All the evidence shows that nuclear power is too slow to build, too expensive, and it remains highly polluting and dangerous," one activist said.
Mar 21, 2024
An international coalition of environmental groups dropped banners and blockaded roads to protest the International Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels on Thursday.
While the summit, hosted by the Belgian government and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), pushes nuclear energy as a replacement for fossil fuels, more than 600 climate action groups launched a declaration calling nuclear power plants a "distraction which slows down the energy transition."
"We are in a climate emergency, so time is precious, and the governments here today are wasting it with nuclear energy fairy tales," Greenpeace E.U. senior campaigner Lorelei Limousin said in a statement. "All the evidence shows that nuclear power is too slow to build, too expensive, and it remains highly polluting and dangerous."
"The nuclear lobby camouflages itself beneath a climate-friendly facade, hoping to divert massive sums of money away from real climate solutions, at the expense of people and the planet."
At the United Nations COP28 climate conference in the United Arab Emirates last year, more than 20 countries pledged to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050. However, Greenpeace France calculated that achieving this would mean finishing 70 reactors each year between 2040 and 2050. This would be an unprecedented buildout in defiance of current trends: Between 2020 and 2023, 21 reactors were completed while 24 were shut down worldwide.
In the European Union specifically, many countries turned away from nuclear after 2011 in response to the Fukushima accident in Japan, according to Reuters. Germany shuttered its last three reactors for good in April 2023 following a successful anti-nuclear campaign there. In general, the nuclear share of the E.U. power mix dropped from 32.8% in 2000 to 22.8% in 2023, Greenpeace said.
Activists argue that nuclear still poses all the dangers the anti-nuclear movement has been warning about for decades and also cannot be ramped up quickly enough to prevent escalating climate extremes.
To reinforce this message, members of Greenpeace France blockaded the main roads to the Brussels summit using cars and bicycles. They also lit pink flares and threw pink powder as a motorcade of officials en route to the summit approached. The action succeeded in delaying the arrival of several delegations, Greenpeace E.U. said.
Other demonstrators dropped banners from the summit site at Brussels Expo reading, "Nuclear Fairy Tale," while a group representing the 600 declaration signatories protested in front of an inflatable bouncy castle holding up a sign reading, "Nuclear fairy tales = climate crisis."
The declaration was drafted by Climate Action Network Europe and signed by groups from at least 56 different countries and territories including Climate Action Network Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch, CodePink, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and several 350.org, Fridays for Future, and Friends of the Earth affiliates.
"The nuclear lobby camouflages itself beneath a climate-friendly facade, hoping to divert massive sums of money away from real climate solutions, at the expense of people and the planet," the declaration reads.
The signatories pointed out that, while the world must dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in order to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, it would take longer than this for any new nuclear plant to come online.
At the same time, it costs significantly more money to increase nuclear capacity than renewable options like wind and solar, they stressed. A new reactor requires almost four times the funds of a new wind power installation.
"Governments need to invest in proven climate solutions, such as home insulation, public transport, and renewable energy, rather than expensive experiments, like small modular reactors, which have no guarantees of actually delivering," the declaration says.
It also points to safety risks across the nuclear lifecycle, from uranium mining to waste storage. And it adds that those dangers would only increase as temperatures rise.
"The climate crisis also increases the risks involved in nuclear power, as increased heatwaves, droughts, storms, and flooding all pose significant threats to the plants themselves and to the systems that aim to prevent nuclear accidents," the signatories argued.
Instead, the declaration proposes that governments focus on achieving 100% renewable energy while also improving efficiency.
"What we demand is a just transition toward a safe, renewable, and affordable energy system that secures jobs and protects life on our planet," the declaration concludes.
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Thousands Tell EU to 'Stop Austerity' at Mass March in Brussels
"Austerity is always aimed at the same people: working people," said one French labor leader.
Dec 12, 2023
Labor leaders in the European Union on Tuesday estimated that 15,000 people from across the bloc had traveled to central Brussels to march against austerity measures expected to go into effect after the New Year, with workers demanding fair wages and sufficient funding for public services.
Organized by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and other labor organizations representing workers in the agricultural, tourism, and food industries, among others, the march through the E.U.'s capital was planned in response to the Stability and Growth Pact—a set of economic rules that were paused during the coronavirus pandemic.
The rules that are set to go into effect again in 2024, following months of negotiations by finance ministers, require that member states' public debt doesn't exceed 60% of their gross domestic product and that their annual deficit stay below 3%.
The ETUC said 14 of the E.U.'s 27 member states would be required to cut a combined 45 billion euros ($49 billion) from their budgets next year under the plan, followed by more cuts in the coming years.
In a letter to the European Council on Monday, the union, which represents 45 million workers, noted that wages are already falling in the bloc, despite the fact that profit margins of corporations are increasing.
"Further austerity would have a devastating effect on the economy and on workers, deepening the social justice emergency," wrote Esther Lynch, general secretary of the ETUC, noting that the early days of the pandemic in 2020 saw European governments invest in public health measures and worker protections. "We must maintain a solidaristic and forward-looking approach."
The union called on the council to approve a further one-year extension of the Stability and Growth Pact's "escape clause," which was invoked in 2020.
"The ETUC is calling for a rethink," wrote Lynch. "A smarter reform is needed. The austerity measures imposed following the financial crisis had a profoundly damaging effect on Europe, with the scars still visible in our economy, our society, and our politics."
The New Economic Foundation released an analysis last year showing that without restrictions on public spending that were imposed in the E.U. after the 2008 financial meltdown, the average citizen of the bloc would be more than $3,000 better off, and governments would have invested $575 billion more in infrastructure and $1,000 more per person on education, healthcare, and other social services.
A return to such austerity would "kill jobs, lower wages, mean even less funding for already over-stretched public services, and all but guarantee another devastating recession," Lynch told the Associated Press.
One education worker who traveled all the way from Portugal to march told the AP that "fair taxation" is needed "so that there is enough money to go to the public services and all European citizens and all European workers can live with dignity."
"People deserve to live in dignity, to have decent salaries, to have good working conditions and they are not getting it from most governments in Europe and this austerity," Manuela Mendonca told the outlet.
The ETUC said investments in social spending and meeting climate targets must be excluded from spending limits, and called for the Recovery and Resilience Facility, which was passed to aid climate action and a digital transition across Europe, to be kept in place.
"Austerity is always aimed at the same people," said Sophie Binet, secretary-general of the General Confederation of Labor in France, at Tuesday's march. "Working people."
Marchers carried signs through Brussels that read, "For jobs and public services" and, "Stop austerity."
"Austerity has been tried and it failed," Lynch told the AP. "It is time to learn the lessons of the past and ensure the E.U.'s economic rules put the wellbeing of people and the planet before totally arbitrary limits."
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Climate Protesters Call Out 'Hot Air' of Financial Giant During BlackRock Annual Meeting
"The time for rhetoric and baby steps is long gone. BlackRock has to make substantial changes to its entire investment model in order to be the climate leader it claims to be."
May 21, 2020
As BlackRock--the world's biggest investor in fossil fuels and deforestation--held its annual shareholders meeting Thursday, climate activists came together in New York City, San Francisco, Brussels, and London for socially distanced demonstrations protesting the massive asset manager's "failure to live up to its rhetoric on climate change."
" BlackRock is responsible, through its irresponsible investments, for the suffering of vulnerable communities everywhere and we will not accept its hot air on climate."
--Jeff Conant, Friends of the Earth
Although the ongoing coronavirus pandemic prompted protesters to take precautions such as wearing face masks and limiting the number of participants, they still took to the streets to call out BlackRock's "hot air" on realigning its investment strategy with ensuring a habitable future planet--as founder and CEO Larry Fink had vowed to do in a January letter to the world's top chief executives.
Activists held banners near BlackRock locations in London and Brussels, while members of Friends of the Earth painted a mural and displayed banners outside the asset manager's San Francisco offices. In front of the firm's NYC headquarters, protesters floated a 10-foot hot air balloon with a banner that read "BlackRock: Hot Air on Climate."
"This message to BlackRock is in solidarity with essential workers and environmental defenders everywhere," Jeff Conant, senior international forest program director at Friends of the Earth, said in a statement about the protests. "Covid-19 is a terrifying manifestation of how quickly our global systems can break down, with the greatest burden falling on those already economically disenfranchised."
Referencing the economically devastating lockdowns that have been imposed around the world because of the pandemic this year, Conant added that "we may be hunkering down, but we will not be idle or silent. BlackRock is responsible, through its irresponsible investments, for the suffering of vulnerable communities everywhere and we will not accept its hot air on climate."
Friends of the Earth U.S. is part of a coalition of advocacy groups that in January launched Stop the Money Pipeline, a campaign that pressures banks, insurers, and asset managers to stop financing climate destruction. The initiative--which identifies BlackRock as a top target--kicked off just as the Wall Street titan announced it was joining the Climate Action 100+ investor initiative.
At the time, members of the BlackRock's Big Problem network called the move a "first step in the right direction" but urged the firm to "go beyond words and actually make meaningful changes to the way it wields its power." The message from activists on Thursday was that "so far BlackRock's big talk on climate change is a lot of hot air," in the words of Pete Sikora from New York Communities for Change (NYCC).
"Fink can't hide behind rhetoric without meaningful climate action. That's why we brought a hot air balloon to BlackRock's headquarters today," said Sikora. "Covid is a horror for our city. It is also a preview of the accelerating climate crisis, which BlackRock is fueling by putting more money into fossil fuels than any other investor."
The protests came after a virtual "People's Assembly on BlackRock" on Wednesday featuring various elected officials and Indigenous and community leaders. During the event, members of the BlackRock's Big Problem network went over questions they submitted for BlackRock's annual meeting, some of which Fink addressed Thursday.
In response, Moira Birss of Amazon Watch said that "Larry Fink's answers to our questions this morning show that BlackRock's actions just don't live up to the urgency of the climate crisis."
"While BlackRock is tweaking its investment models and talking about transparency, the Bay of Bengal is being hammered by a hurricane, Michigan is flooding after record storms, and fires in the Amazon this summer are predicted to be worse than ever," she said. "The time for rhetoric and baby steps is long gone. BlackRock has to make substantial changes to its entire investment model in order to be the climate leader it claims to be."
BlackRock was not alone in facing coronavirus-conscious protests from climate activists during shareholder meetings this week. As Common Dreams reported Tuesday, both oil giant Royal Dutch Shell and multinational investment bank JPMorgan Chase--another top target of Stop the Money Pipeline as the bank that provides the most financing for the fossil fuel industry--also saw various actions condemning their contributions to climate chaos.
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Europe Wraps Up Warmest Winter on Record With Massive Youth #ClimateStrike in Brussels
"Young people, workers, communities at the frontlines of the #ClimateEmergency are taking it to the streets. They tell E.U. leaders that they must increase weak climate targets now."
Mar 05, 2020
Thousands of people, including Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, marched through downtown Brussels Friday for the youth-led European Climate Strike just a day after scientists released new data revealing that the past few months represented Europe's warmest winter ever recorded.
As the home to multiple European Union institutions, Brussels is considered the E.U.'s de facto capital. The Brussels Times reported that protesters traveled from all across Belgium to participate in the demonstration. Sophie Vandeveugle, a 21-year-old from Namur, told the newspaper, "I'm here as a symbolic measure, because I don't think politicians are listening."
Some climate strikers came from other countries, like 22-year-old Anna of Vienna, Austria. "I'm here because of the E.U. Green Deal, it's not enough, and if this will be the last we will hear about it, then it's very sad," Anna told the Times. "We need decisive and radical action now, not in 50 years; it is too late for a smooth transition."
The demonstration came as the European Commission, the E.U.'s executive branch, continues to endure criticism from climate activists that the European Green Deal introduced in December by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen isn't adequately ambitious. A draft of the E.U. climate law, the centerpiece of the deal, was unveiled Wednesday.
On Friday, as Common Dreams reported, the climate lobbying watchdog InfluenceMap revealed that representatives of oil giant ExxonMobil met with commission officials who were finalizing the European Green Deal last fall in an effort to ensure that vehicles in Europe will keep running on fossil fuels rather than transitioning to electric.
Critics of the E.U. Green Deal charge that its call for net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 "equals surrender." In an open letter Tuesday, 17-year-old Thunberg and 33 fellow climate strikers wrote: "It means giving up. We don't just need goals for just 2030 or 2050. We, above all, need them for 2020 and every following month and year to come."
Thunberg founded the Fridays for Future movement and has traveled the world to pressure people in power to take the climate crisis more seriously.
After joining the march, she delivered a speech to fellow strikers in Brussels Friday:
"People constantly tell us that we are exaggerating or that we are just naive children, but all we are doing is telling people in power to unite behind the science and give us a safe future," Thunberg told the crowd. "I don't think that is too much to ask for."
"And it does seem like we understand the science better than most, to judge from their actions," she added. "Our house is on fire and this week the European Commission proposed a European climate law which basically says that we will once again wait a few more years to start putting the fire out--and that is not how you act in a crisis, because time is a luxury that we do not have."
Backed by cheers, Thunberg vowed that "we will be a constant reminder that they are failing us every Friday when we strike." This week marked the Nobel Peace Prize nominee's 81st climate strike, which she started outside the Swedish parliament in 2018.
The Brussels-based advocacy group Friends of the Earth Europe pointed out in a tweet Friday that the climate strike closed out Europe's warmest winter on record, according to findings published Thursday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), which is implemented by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Commission.
The new C3S analysis found that the 2019-2020 winter was 3.4degC warmer than the average for 1981-2010, and the temperature was nearly 1.4degC higher than that of the previous record from 2015-2016.
"Europe has been experiencing its mildest winter on record. Whilst this was a truly extreme event in its own right, it is likely that these sorts of events have been made more extreme by the global warming trend," C3S director Carlo Buontempo said in a statement Thursday. "With C3S data, individuals, institutions, and policymakers can make informed decisions based on the evolving climate temperatures."
The stated mission of C3S is "to support adaptation and mitigation policies of the European Union by providing consistent and authoritative information about climate change."
Mauro Facchini, Head of the Earth Observation Unit at European Commission Directorate-General's DEFIS, said Thursday that "now more than ever, the role of Copernicus is becoming more important. The European Commission relies on programs like Copernicus and institutions like the ECMWF to provide quality assured operational data to support the development of a climate-resilient society."
"Copernicus will effectively contribute to the implementation of the European Commission Green Deal in various sectors," Facchini added.
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Decrying EU Proposal to Address Climate Crisis by 2050 as 'Too Little Too Late,' Greenpeace Activists Stage #HouseOnFire Demonstration
"The world is on fire and our governments are letting it burn."
Dec 11, 2019
Greenpeace activists on Thursday dropped banners and held flares in an attempt to make the Europa building in Brussels, Belgium appear to be on fire as the continent's leaders gathered to address the planetary emergency.
"The world is on fire and our governments are letting it burn," Greenpeace EU director Jorgo Riss said in a statement.
Protesters arrived at the building Thursday morning in a vintage fire engine. The 61 demonstrators came from seven countries, according to Greenpeace EU. Twenty-eight climbers "scaled the summit venue and wrapped the building with images of giant lapping red and yellow flames, setting off billowing clouds of black and white smoke, red distress flares, and sounding a loud fire alarm," the group said in a statement.
WARNING: CLIMATE DELAYERS INSIDE
European leaders are stuck discussing climate targets... for 2050?!
If we don't decrease EU emissions to at least 65% by 2030, it's going to be very difficult to get to zero by 2040 #HouseOnFire #EUCO #ClimateEmergency #COP25 pic.twitter.com/MEqx4kzRwX
-- Greenpeace EU (@GreenpeaceEU) December 12, 2019
It's a big week for the climate crisis in Europe as the region's leaders are debating action at both the United Nation's COP 25 gathering in Madrid, Spain and the European Union summit in Brussels.
According to The Associated Press, E.U. Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is fighting to get support for a carbon-neutral plan, but is facing particular resistance from Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic who object to a clean energy transition by voicing cost concerns.
To get the support of all E.U. members, von der Leyen on Wednesday unveiled a new "European Green Deal" she called a "master plan," with an offer of some 100 billion euros ($130 billion) in public and private funds to help the fossil-fuel reliant E.U. nations make the transition to lower emissions.
"It's not enough for them to commit to a climate neutral E.U. in 2050," said Riss. "The presidents and prime ministers in Brussels today will be long gone by then. What counts even more is the urgent action they take now, while they are in power."
Fifty of the demonstrators, including all 28 climbers, were arrested.
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Ahead of Key Vote, Belgians 'Occupy for Climate' to Demand Constitutional Amendment
"We are done asking nicely!" say campaigners as they call for a constitutional revision to allow a climate law to take effect
Mar 25, 2019
Belgian activists in Brussels are participating in Occupy for Climate to pressure members of parliament to support a constitutional revision that would allow the country to adopt an ambitious climate law with binding targets.
"We are done asking nicely" is the rallying cry of the movement, led by national chapters of Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion as well as other youth and environmental groups.
After camping out overnight on the Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat--a road that's home to many Belgian and European Union (EU) governmental buildings, including the federal parliament--activists relocated to the nearby Place du Trone/Troonplein, where they plan to stay until a vote on the proposal, scheduled for Tuesday.
"Last night was a tremendous success. Some 100 people spent the night here," Greenpeace campaigner Joeri Thijs told VRT, a national public broadcaster. "In consultation with the police we've decided to switch to the Troonplein. There we're organizing a breakfast and we're asking the people of Brussels to join us."
Outlining the constitutional revision and subsequent climate law sought by occupiers, Flanders Today, an online English-language newspaper, reported:
The proposal would add a single sentence to Belgium's constitution to allow the federal parliament to embark on an ambitious climate plan that has already been prepared. While concrete policies would still need to be created from the plan, the plan itself cannot be considered until the constitution is altered.
If the proposal doesn't pass on Tuesday, it would be for the next legislature in 2024.
"That would be a disaster," Thijs said about the proposed amendment's potential failure. "Climate policy can provide a structure in this very complex country. It can provide a very clear focus in tackling the climate goals that were already agreed to in Paris," referring to the international climate accord from 2015.
"This climate law must be introduced. If it isn't, it's an insult to all the people who take to the streets every week."
--Anuna De Wever, Youth For Climate
Belgium is a federal parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy with many levels of government. As VRT explained, the push to amend the constitution came after "Belgium's council of state ruled that a federal climate law setting out binding targets would be unconstitutional as environment is a regional power."
The climate law, as Brussels Express detailed,
was developed by a group of academics from various universities and presented on February 1 at the Chamber of Representatives. It contains 20 articles and highlights the creation of several new institutions to coordinate the climate policy of the federal state, regions, and language communities of Belgium.
The most controversial sections involve raising the greenhouse gas reduction targets to at least 65 percent by 2030 and 95 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels; increasing the share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption to 32 percent; and improving energy efficiency by at least 32.5 percent by 2030.
"This climate law must be introduced. If it isn't, it's an insult to all the people who take to the streets every week," Anuna De Wever of Youth For Climate told VRT.
In recent months, Belgium has seen mass mobilizations of youth as part of the global movement for bold climate action, largely inspired by Swedish teenager and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greta Thunberg. In late January, tens of thousands of people joined a weekend march in Brussels, the EU's de facto capital, to call for urgent action on the climate crisis.
"We're not doing this for fun!" said De Wever. "We'll make our point until they listen."
Passing the revision that will allow the climate law to take effect will require, according to Brussels Express, "a two-thirds majority in the parliament, and a simple majority in both the Flemish-speaking and French-speaking language groups."
Last week, the party MR (Reformist Movement) had indicated it would not support the constitutional amendment, with MR Prime Minister Charles Michel instead favoring a nonbinding agreement. However, under pressure from occupiers on Monday, the party announced its support for the revision:
"Despite months of protests against climate change, our politicians are about to bury the climate law," Greenpeace said in a statement in French on Sunday. "After years of stagnation in climate policy due to a lack of ambition and cooperation, we have arrived at a crucial moment."
"We now need a convincing climate policy that puts Belgium back on track to deliver on the promises of the Paris climate agreement," the group concluded. "We are done asking nicely!"
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Belgian Environment Minister Forced to Resign After Falsely Claiming Student-Led Climate Strikes Part of Ghostly Plot
"Can we stop doubting the movement?" asked an organizer who's helped coordinate several huge climate action marches in Belgium in recent weeks
Feb 04, 2019
The Belgian Environment Minister from the nation's Flanders region resigned from her post on Tuesday after sparking outrage by accusing students holding weekly climate strikes in Brussels and other cities of being puppets in an orchestrated plot.
In addition to denigrating the motivations behind the protests, Joke Schauvliege claimed she was given intelligence from security officials that the demonstrations over the last five weeks--and attended by tens of thousands of students and others--were not "spontaneous actions" but something more nefarious.
"The minister's allegation is an insult to the authentic engagement of so many young people." --Youth for Climate"I know who is behind this movement, both of the Sunday demonstrations and the truants," Schauvliege said last month, referring to the tens of thousands of students who have walked out of their classrooms to demand that their leaders rapidly shift away from fossil fuel-based energy to combat the climate crisis.
"I have also been told that from state security," she added. "I can guarantee that I do not see ghosts alone."
However, Schauvliege was forced to admit Tuesday that her claim was false after Belgian security authorities told the press that "We have not reported anything" to the minister about a plot by students to do anything other than gather legally and demand action from their elected representatives.
The climate debate, Schauvliege tweeted Tuesday as she announced her resignation, "must not revolve around me as a person, and that is why I take a step that should bring back serenity and reasonableness."
Schauvliege refused to call her claim a "lie," however, saying she had simply said something that wasn't true.
Student organizers had already responded to the minister's comments with a mix of disgust and dismissal.
"At first, I had to laugh really hard" after hearing the comments, march organizer Anuna de Wever told VRT network. The 17-year-old has helped gather as many as 30,000 students to attend recent Thursday climate strike marches and 80,000 demonstrators at a rally on January 27.
"It is very strange that a minister can lie about such a thing," de Wever told the Guardian. "That's just not the case. Can we stop doubting the movement?"
"I still hope that she wants to work with us on a more ambitious climate policy," she added before Schauvliege announced her resignation.
"The minister's allegation is an insult to the authentic engagement of so many young people," said Youth for Climate, the grassroots group which has organized the marches, said in a statement.
The outgoing environment minister has clashed with climate action groups in the past. Greenpeace filed suit against the Flanders government last year over its failure to take meaningful action to curb air pollution from cars.
"These governments are willfully negligent by not sufficiently protecting their citizens against the serious impact that polluted air has on our health," Greenpeace Belgium said in a complaint about Schauvliege's administration.
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