Climate activist Luis Neubauer takes the federal government to court.
Berlin (dpa) – The climate activist Luisa Neubauer accuses the federal government of playing down the consequences of climate change for a long time. “So far, the federal government has basically behaved for decades as if the climate crisis couldn’t really harm us,” said Neubauer on Wednesday of the German press agency. That is “not only ignorant”, it also destroys livelihoods, explained the prominent Fridays for Future activist.
The flood catastrophe with its consequences that Germany is currently experiencing is “not just a major disaster,” said Neubauer. It is “also a consequence of the political refusal to take scientific warnings seriously”. For decades, the federal government has been fueling climate change, and the weather extremes are “demonstrably getting worse and worse”, explained Neubauer. The country was not prepared for the disaster. “Neither people nor infrastructure were built for this climate catastrophe, that is more obvious today than ever.”
Neubauer also criticized the fact that people had not been sufficiently warned of the flood when experts had already sounded the alarm. Prevention and disaster control have been neglected, as have the studies that have long been predicting floods, said Neubauer.
The politically responsible must now present “real plans” to protect people from the effects of the climate and to tackle the phase-out from fossil fuels, the activist demanded.
