The campaign

The first internationally agreed climate target is lost. There is no plausible pathway to stay below 1.5°C. This would require global emissions to peak before 2025 and be reduced by 43% by 2030. Even that would likely lead to 1.5°C being exceeded within the next ten years. The most optimistic scenario reported by the IPCC rests on the hypothetical deployment of large-scale carbon dioxide removal technologies to drag temperatures back down by the end of the century.

Continuing to say publicly 1.5°C is still alive is no longer defensible, yet politicians, leading academics and the environmental movement persist in doing so. In response, polluting industries and policymakers are inadvertently being encouraged to resist rapid decarbonization.

It is our responsibility to state the physical and ecological reality vs. political fiction to society. There is the very real possibility of global cataclysm, and we demand that those in power act accordingly.

When?

Mid October – 04th November 2022

Why Germany?

Germany is a powerful country in the EU and one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The German economy has benefited much more than others from burning fossil fuels and exploitation of resources. And although there is much wealth, Germany fails badly at achieving its climate and biodiversity targets.

More than 70 years ago, Germany completely rebuilt itself and developed into an international role model. We appeal to that positive spirit of achieving enormous change! Today, it has everything to lead by example into a safer world. Why would Germany further postpone the transformative change that is needed to counteract climate and biodiversity breakdown?

Outside Europe: There will be solidarity actions on other continents.

Who?

Scientists, academics and supporters from all over Europe.

Because...

The government failed to secure the internationally agreed climate safe zone. We already entered the era of consequences. Admit that failure! Only then can we leave the sphere of wishful thinking and dangerous delay.

Immediate safety measures have to be implemented – internationally and nationally.

Cancel the debt of the global South (GS). Debt suffocates global South nations’ ability to take climate action. Cancelling the debt of impoverished nations will free them to leave fossil fuels in the ground and invest in a just transition to clean energy. The colonial setup of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank places immense power in the hands of the G7. Germany has to take a strong stand in favor for cancelling the debt of the global South, expressed through a letter to the IMF.

Initiate a just transition of the German transport sector through a speed limit on motorways and affordable public transport (9€ ticket). The German transport sector is in tight grip of the car industry lobby. Almost no greenhouse gas emission reductions have been achieved. However, during an energy and cost of living crisis, saving fossil fuels through a speed limit and making mobility cheap is not only logical but imperative.

Unite Against Climate Failure - The Colalition

Scientist Rebellion is part of a coalition of nonviolent civil resistance groups that combine their strengths for achieving the above listed safety measures.

Coalition partners: Letzte Generation, Debt for Climate, Jetzt oder Nie – Eltern gegen die Fossilindustrie

Further Reading
1,5 Grad, es war schön mit dir! – Treibhauspost

Klimaforscher Schellnhuber: „Das Langfrist-Ziel heißt Klima-Reparatur“ – Frankfurter Rundschau