180 euros - that's how much a ton of CO2 will cost in the future, according to the organizers of "Fridays for Future". For the first time, climate activists have made concrete demands on politics in a policy paper. "'Fridays For Future Germany' urges governments at local, state and federal levels to name the climate crisis as such." They should act immediately on all levels, it says in the paper.
Specifically, the students are concerned with the following points:
- Germany should therefore get out of coal power by 2030,
- be fully supplied by renewable energies by 2035
- and additionally achieve a net zero in the greenhouse gas balance.
- By the end of this year, more than a quarter of all coal-fired power plants should be shut down.
- In addition, according to the statement of the activists, a CO2 tax should be introduced. With the tax, the organizers want to achieve a limit of global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The claim paper "deliberately contains only goals, no measures". It is the responsibility of the policy to find the appropriate way to achieve compliance with the 1.5-degree target. This goal was also set down in the Paris Climate Agreement - but now scientists agree that this requirement could only be met by immediate action. "We are aware that these demands are ambitious," the climate activists write.
For weeks, students have been struggling across Europe for better climate protection. Because they miss the lesson on Fridays, a political dispute over the demonstrations has flared up. Recently, FDP party leader Christian Lindner announced that he was "stunned that truancy is being canonized by some politicians." Chancellor Angela Merkel, on the other hand, supported the students.